Borealis
by Ludwisia
Summary: Atlantis comes back to Pegasus and finds a new power rising and threatening the wraith. With the civilians coming to live in the City it can be a threat or a hope for the expedition and entire galaxy.
1. Chapter 1 Trip back

_A/N:_

_**I know I was to post this much, much sooner and I am greatly sorry but my studies take a lot of my time and since I started some new activities in my life I was unable to work faster. I need to have some chapters prepared in advance in order to post them.**_

_**By the way, I am still looking for a willing beta for this piece… So if you're interested in helping me with Borealis feel free to contact me **_

_**I hope you like this, have a good reading **_

**Trip back**

It was a late night and there was no one in sight in the mess, but they decided that Sam's new-old quarters were much better for this talk. They were both restless since the trip has begun and letting Lorne and Zelenka handle everything was not really helping to ease the tension.

"It's borderline maddening." Samantha Carter commented after handing John a beer.

"But you've made a lot of hyperspace travels, you should be used to it."

"It was different." She grumbled.

"Ah…" Said John knowingly. "You actually had SOMETHING to do then, right?"

They both laughed then. They were tired from doing nothing all day.

"Yup…" She gulped her beer. "What about you, not envious about Lorne in the chair?"

"Nope, he deserves to fly, good pilot for this kind of ship."

There was a pause then and silence. John was the first to break it.

"Why did you agree to this post?" He asked.

"It's a big opportunity for me." She replied almost without hesitation.

"I mean what about leaving Earth?" He dug deeper. "I'm sure I remember Rodney telling me something about your talk when you were stuck underground… He said something about a man…"

"I'm gonna need another beer…" Sam got up and went in the direction of her secret stash. "Want one as well?" she asked John holding a can to him.

"I mean, the general is still on Earth, in Washington…"

"What are you talking about?" Sam tried to look like she didn't know what the talk was about.

"Oh, come on, it's probably the worst kept secret in the Air Force right now." John commented with a grin. "And since you keep getting the good jobs I think nobody has a problem with that."

"John…"

"Don't be uneasy about it." He put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting and supportive manner. "I'm happy for you, it's hard to find someone special with our job."

"It's not like we can openly be together." Sam whispered. "The regulations…"

"Isn't he going to retire?"

"There is too much to do still… He is needed."

"So are you."

There was another silent moment and then it was Carter to ask an uncomfortable question.

"Were you two lovers?"

"What? Who?" John was sincerely oblivious as to the point of the question.

"You and Weir… were you two 'together'?" Sam had given him another beer to ease the talk even more. It was a question that was nagging her for quite some time. "You two looked very close and your behavior when she was lost…"

"No." He stated calmly and firmly. "We were just good friends and partners in leading the city. There was nothing romantic between us."

"Nothing romantic?" Sam probed.

"No romance at all." He confirmed.

"John?" Carter looked at him and saw how he averted his gaze, how he was reluctant to meet her eyes even after the beer. "There is something more in there, isn't it?" She probed. "John, were you two lovers?"

John stood up and started pacing. Sam looked at the colonel with a strange feeling building inside. He would have denied if he could. This talk was beginning to be much too personal and much too disturbing. If Sheppard and Weir were in fact sharing the bed it would have totally changed the way everyone looked at their interactions. Thank god her room was shielded from anything that could leak the secrets shared in there.

"It was just one night." John spoke at last. "Just after she came back from Earth after the mess with the wraith hives." He explained. "We both needed some reassurance, but Elizabeth was simply shaken by what happened. She couldn't sleep and was disturbed by the situation. We spent the night together, had sex and resumed our duties. It didn't happen again. We were back to our working relationship."

"Noone noticed something was different?" Sam was curious.

"Beckett knew, he was always the one with high amount of empathy." John smiled and sat back at the bed. "We admitted to taking comfort in each other's arms the very next day when he confronted us during the usual checkups."

"So you cared for each other far more than you were expected, didn't you?" Sam asked with a little smile. John just nodded. "It's completely human, John, you don't have to be uneasy about it," Sam used his own phrase, "at least when we are alone."

"Thanks for listening."

"Right back at you.

They were lying on her bed not long after that, drinking another beer. They managed to get themselves in good mood again and into some much needed funny and amusing topics. Their talk went back to the light banter it originally started with.

They woke up in what was considered morning by the timekeeping on the City in hyperspace. Everything hurt. Lying on the bed with head on the wall and legs off the piece of furniture. And the headache…

"Oh my…" whined Sam getting up from the bed. "My head is…"

"Yeah…" confirmed John getting to his feet. "I hate hangovers."

They looked at themselves and both winced. Their clothes were wrinkled and they looked like hell.

"Crap." Decided John. "It's going to look suspicious if I stroll from your room looking like that."

"We can survive that, John." Whined Sam again. "Just be quick. We'll see each other at the briefing in" she checked the clock standing on her nightstand "half an hour. See you in the conference room."

Then next two days were filled with the preparations for coming back to Lantia. The planet was chosen because of the best possible spot and overall conditions. The large ocean that was the original resting place for the city and lush mainland with a possibility to inhabit and provide some very much needed R&R was the best they could do. And since the replicators were already defeated and annihilated there was no real danger.

Securing all the equipment and checking and rechecking everything was what they did. Then, after coming out of hyperspace John sat in the chair and landed. It was his second landing and it went very well, much better than they all expected. It might have been because of all the improvements integrated in the systems since landing on Earth. Nothing was damaged and no one was injured and it was much more than could be said for the other two landings performed by Atlantis in recent time.

Just like after landing on Earth the crew took their time to appreciate the sight. It seemed that everyone went out on the balconies to welcome back the place they were going to work in. John spotted a lot of people he used to know from their first three years in Pegasus and who requested to be transferred back to Earth after Elizabeth's death. It was a sad reminder that some of them didn't make it back.

"What are you thinking about?" Asked Sam coming a little closer to him.

"Elizabeth liked it here, you know, she would be happy to be back."

"She is missed by the people she used to lead." She commented. "I remember feeling a little awkward when they resigned this job just after I came here."

"It was not about you." Provided John.

"I know but it still seemed like they were not happy about me."

"Now they came back…"

"Yeah." Sam smiled. "Now we can build a new history here. I just wish there was someone to help us with the wraith."

"I don't know about you but I kind of feel being watched since just after we entered this galaxy." John smiled. "It's almost like some force told me we are safe."

"I thought it was my feeling only…" Sam wondered. "We will probably find soon enough if there is something behind the feeling."

"Yeah, I bet we will, and very soon."


	2. Chapter 2 Looking for Teyla's people

A/N:

Hi everyone. Thanks to my new, wonderful beta, Pharaonin, there is the new, checked, chapter I hope you like it.

**Looking for Teyla's people**

"Okay, kids, let's be on our best behavior." Commented John adjusting his vest and watching the kawooshing gate. "It's been a long time since we visited and we want to make a good impression on the Athosians." He looked at his team and then neared and helped Carson with his gear. "Teyla, lead the way, they are probably missing you badly." He indicated with a hand.

Teyla stepped through the wormhole with a huge grin. She was going to see her family again and she could hardly wait. It was obvious for the last three days just how apprehensive she was. The only person who was able to calm her down was surprisingly Jack O'Neill who came through the gate during the first connection from Earth and announced that he was going to stay for a longer time. He was able to talk to Teyla about Torren John and assure her somehow that her child was surely perfectly fine during their long time away from each other.

Finally, Sam approved the mission to M66-5A3 which was the planet where they helped the Athosians to rebuild. It was supposed to be abandoned long ago by the original inhabitants and the Wraith focused their activity on region of space on the other side of the Galaxy. So it was relatively safe.

Teyla walked out of the puddle with a smile that instantly vanished. She looked around expecting some kind of ambush. Something was not right.

"Teyla?" Asked Sheppard seeing her anxiety. He put his hands more securely on his gun in an instant. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, John" she admitted. "I can't feel my people. I can't feel Kanaan. Just like when they had been kidnapped."

"Don't worry, we'll find them." Ronon put one of his hands on her arm in comforting manner, but he, too, had changed a grip on his gun. It was set to 'kill', she noticed.

They were walking with their guns down, in case Teyla was wrong but the closer they got to the village the more the more they knew there was no one there. After half an hour of walk they reached the settlement. Or what used to be an Athosian village. There was exactly nothing. The place was cleaned and cleared of all remnants of the tents and fireplaces.

"Looks like they left some time ago." Decided Sheppard and lowered his hand from the gun. "Nothing for us here, Teyla, I'm sorry. We're going back." He started a brisk walk towards the gate. "We need to regroup and find them. I don't like it when I don't know where our people are."

"My people" muttered Teyla."

Ronon pushed her gently in the direction of the gate to get her moving. There was no point in staying any longer. They will be much more useful in Atlantis checking other allies for possible information.

"What do you mean 'they vanished'?" Asked Jack while sitting in Sam's room in one of the comfortable chairs Sam brought back with her to Pegasus.

"Into thin air, you can say." She sat down opposite of him after giving him a bottle with a golden liquid. "At least that's what Sheppard told me."

"Yeah, I saw the way Teyla looked. She's beside her at the moment."

"Wouldn't you be?" She looked him in the eye. "I mean, she left to help us and when she comes back she finds her family gone, maybe killed." Sam sipped her beer.

"Can you really drink, Carter?" Asked Jack taking a sip from his bottle. "You're like commander here…"

"I left Lorne in the control room in case of emergency." She answered with a small smile. "And he is not to bother me unless absolutely necessary. We can enjoy the moment. What's with you being here, anyway?"

"Oh, you know me, I just couldn't stay away from 'far far away'."

"Jack…?"

"What?"

"I know you're not telling me everything." Sam closed her eyes and laid her head on the armrest. "I've known you for more than ten years. Don't play with me."

O'Neill stood. He paced a little as if trying to collect his thoughts. When he finally spoke his voice was quiet and measured.

"I retire in a month." He provided. "I asked to be allowed to retire here, on Atlantis, to help, provide some insight and so on… Hank provided me with some viable excuses."

Sam's head snapped up and their eyes met.

"That is if you want me here…" he whispered almost without a sound. "Sam?" He asked when she did not answer. Then he noticed she had her face covered by her hands and she was shaking. "Sam? Is something wrong?"

"Too much beer." Laughed suddenly Sam and only then did he notice that she was crying.

Then he saw how strange this must look. He, on his knees in front of Carter, both still with their bottles of beer. She crying, he confused. Sam must have noticed it also because she started to laugh much harder and he joined her.

"There is one drawback, you know" he said when they were back to some semblance of seriousness. "Woolsey will be coming next week to be a liaison with the IOA." And that provoked them to another burst of laughter.

The next day John and Ronon ventured to one of the known planet. They were walking towards the central building in the village with the intention of talking to Ladon Radim to try and get some idea as to what might have happened to the Atosian people. They were walking by some of the market tables when John suddenly stopped and started listening intently.

"What's wrong?" Asked Ronon quietly putting his hand on the gun.

"I thought I heard a voice calling me." Then he shook his head and started walking again. "I must have misheard."

"Colonel Sheppard!" This time Ronon heard it also. They both turned and looked in the direction where the voice came.

"You've got to be kidding me." Commented Ronon taking his hand from the gun just as a young man abruptly stopped before Sheppard.

"Jinto!" The deep voice was heard a moment later.

The sight of Halling made John very happy. Jinto was a young, tall man now, he did not really look like the kid they met all those - six wasn't it? - years ago.

"Father, look who's here!" Exclaimed Jinto happily. "They came back."

"Kanaan was always sure you will be back" provided Halling. "But it's still good to see you here." Then he saw that there was only two of them and his mood visibly worsened. "Is Teyla not back?"

"Oh, she is, she's in Atlantis." Said John. "Where do you stay, guys, there was no one on the planet we left you on! Teyla was frantic with worry."

"We moved back to Athos three months ago." Said Jinto.

"What?" John was more than surprised. "Last time I checked Athos was crawling with Wraith…"

"It's safe now."

"But how?" But even as Sheppard was asking the question he noticed a little sign that Jinto gave his father and Halling steeled his features just that one bit more than usually.

"It doesn't really matter right, the fact is we are back there and safe and you have come back."

"Right." John let the matter drop. "Will it be okay for Jinto to come with us right now and lead us to Athos or is he needed here? Or maybe we can help with something since we are already here?"

Jinto was looking at his father with wide, eager eyes.

"Oh, off with you, son. Go welcome Teyla back from me."

The brisk walk to the gate was filled with Jinto asking questions about Atlantis and everything else he could think of. Ronon looked at the two of them, Sheppard and the Athosian boy, and could not decide whether it was cute or something. The young man certainly did hold some reverence to colonel, treated him like some kind of hero and listened to every single word the man said. There was, however, one issue that he seemed uncomfortable to talk about and it was the circumstance around Athosians coming back to Athos. He just cut the discussion short by telling that they were safe in their old home once more. Ronon started to think that there had to be something in it but Sheppard seemed content to know they were okay.

The look on Teyla's face when they stepped through the puddle earlier than scheduled, with Jinto coming behind them was priceless. And when Teyla requested permission to go to Athos she got it almost instantly. Jinto was the one to punch the symbols and no more than two minutes from Jinto coming into Atlantis he was back home, on Athos.

"She must have been happy to go back to her family" Jack commented after the gate disengaged about two minutes later, leaving Teyla on the other side and John, Rodney and Ronon in Atlantis.

"I'm not surprised." Said John handing his vest and guns to a lieutenant standing nearby. "So much fear for their lives." He nodded with thanks to the young serviceman.

"Can we move to my office for a while?" Sam led them across the catwalk. She noticed that John still wasn't comfortable with it being the office of someone else than Elizabeth. She knew for a fact that he did not like what she had done with it. "We" she looked at Jack for a second "have something we need to discuss with all of you."

John noticed Beckett was coming their way. He must have been summoned as well.

"Shouldn't we wait for Teyla?" Asked Ronon voicing the concerns of the rest of the group.

"Teyla won't be here anytime soon, with good reason." Said Jack. "Besides it doesn't concern Teyla as much as you."

"Must be something big, huh?"

"You bet, McKay." Whispered Sam closing the glass door.


	3. Chapter 3 A dream of an old leader

_**A/N:**_

_Hello everyone. I'm glad to prezent to you third chapter of my New story – Borealis and even more happy to say that it was checked by my wonderful Beta – Pharaonin _

_My exams are nearing so there would probably be no update till early July, although I would try to sit and made some checking in the middle of my exams and projects to be done and maybe… _

_Hope you like the next part. Please let me know what do you think._

**A dream of an old leader to be made reality**

"So, what's it all about, this secret?" Asked John as soon as they all sat down.

"First of all, Sheppard" Jack stood up and took a small box from the desk. "I was given an honour, as a retiring general… ATTENTION!"

Sam and John immediately snapped up at attention. Then Jack came closer to present him a box with a hand to shake. "I would do this publicly, but I got the impression that you did not like all those shindigs…"

John looked at Sam and saw her smiling, she knew all along. Then he opened the box and was welcomed by a silver eagle. He has just been promoted. "Wow?"

"Congratulations, Sheppard." Said Jack shaking his hand. "You deserve it."

"Congratulations, John." Said Sam shaking his hand as well.

"Does this mean you're being promoted to brigadier general?" Joked John looking playfully at Sam.

"No… but I'm still your boss."

"Good one." Inserted Ronon.

After sitting down John was still reluctant to believe in his luck. Then he remembered that there was something Sam wanted to talk about with them and it had to be pretty important because the door was still closed.

"So, what's the really important thing you wanted to discuss?" Asked Sheppard. "Cause my promotion is a surprise, but surely it's not that important…"

Sam said nothing but handed him a thick folder. Sheppard started looking through the papers. Some of them were already yellowish from keeping them locked in storage.

"I know these!" Said Rodney. "This are the reports dealing with all the living quarters throughout the City and all the systems we uncovered in our first two years."

Sheppard spotted a red folder on the bottom of the pack and took it out. He gave the rest of it to Rodney and opened the red one slowly, almost reverently.

"It was a base to start entertaining the idea given by that report Sheppard is now holding." Started Jack. "The IOA agreed that Atlantis is now powerful and resourceful enough to host a much larger human population."

"Larger like?"

"Like a city as big as …" Realisation dawned at Rodney. "Don't you see?" He looked at Carson who, just like nearly everyone else in the room, had no idea what was being suggested. "The plumbing reports, the amount of possible living space… You want to get more people here!" He looked accusingly at O'Neill. "Are you insane?"

"Lass" Carson looked at Sam "that's a very big decision. We would need much more personnel to maintain even a semblance of control and care all those people would require. We barely compensate with Jennifer with the job because of the extended contingent right now."

"Aren't you going to say something!" Rodney poked Sheppard.

"It was her dream…" John just whispered.

"What?" Rodney seemed to be thrown off balance for a second. "What did you just say?"

"Elizabeth… to the last day she had a dream of this powerful Atlantis full of life, kids, love and love." John stood and handed the red folder to Carson. "It's hers, remember Carson? She's been the only one to use those. She used to make handwritten notes from day one to the last."

Carson flipped through the notes and documents. "Looks like she tried to make that happen somewhere at the beginning of our third year here." The doctor stated after checking some of them. "She was denied even the opportunity to talk to the IOA about it."

"Well, she wasn't exactly in their good book, was she?" Said Jack. "Anyway, the plan is in motion now. There are families prepared to move here. One of the first people to step through that gate would be Woolsey, so prepare. He is going to be a supervisor for the IOA. They think they will be informed about everything…" He along with Sam, John and Rodney smirked openly, Ronon just smiled and Carson had enough compassion to stay without a smile.

"He will have a hard time."

"We'll help him, he's family now." Ronon surprised everyone with the statement, but Jack just nodded.

"John, what do _you_ think about it?" Asked Sam concerned by his silence.

"It's a great idea." He turned around and looked at her and O'Neill. "If you need anything, whatever it is, just tell me. I'll be happy to help make that happen." And with this he walked out of the office with a small smile on his face.

O'Neill found him later on the balcony outside the control room.

"You really happy about the idea?"

"Yeah, really. Anyway, what made you do it?" John looked at the general.

"I think most of us underestimate the impact Elizabeth Weir had on our reality." Jack inhaled deeply and leaned on the railing. "She was the sole purpose we even found this City with all its wonders. She seemed to know everything about it."

"Not just an impression, I can assure you." Commented John. "Rodney could be the lead scientist but when it came to the 'situation' it was Elizabeth who was unstoppable because of her extensive knowledge and involvement in every single activity in the City."

"Ah, Phoebus and Thalan incident, right?"

"Yup." John smiled. "She kicked asses. Figuratively mostly, but I think every single solider looked at her quite differently after that." Sheppard laughed. Those had been nice times.

"Who would have thought she was able to muster such fitness. I only read the reports at first but then Steven came to Washington for some party and I got him to tell me how it looked from his perspective. But from what I understand you had a front row seat?" Joked Jack.

Sheppard smiled and then recollection of the events made him laugh.

"But she knew much more than that, didn't she? More than the layout…"

"She knew every single person from the original expedition by their name and age and rank. With some of them she was able to inquire about their family." John smiled sadly. "She took every death very personally. She was even able to get connection with Rodney."

"She was a diplomat. Skilled one to say the least…"

"It was not that." John stopped him. "There was something more. She was able to connect with the city itself. She knew a moment before everyone else if there was a problem. Despite not having the gene she was able to feel the city and all of its unique 'feelings'."

"Like you?"

"Sometimes I thought she felt everything that much deeper than me or Carson or anyone with the ATA…" John put his hand on the wall and dimmed the wall. "It was the more strange if you knew that Carson tried gene therapy on her at least a dozen times and it didn't took. She just got really sick after the inoculations and after one of these days just stopped the attempts. Told us that she is not a pilot so she doesn't need to fly the Jumpers."

"It's strange being here and having natural ATA." Said suddenly Jack. "I feel like I'm constantly watched and, frankly, I had trouble sleeping."

"You'll get used to it." John smiled. "Carson had it as well, me too, every single person had that problem. Length varies from one week to a month. The only person who was able to sleep just after our arrival was Elizabeth. First I thought it was because she was the most tired person of us all."

"It was not the case?"

"Not really. She told me two years after that, when she considered stepping down, that she heard something resembling a lullaby in her place."

"Seems a bit farfetched…"

"It would be if it wasn't for me also hearing it, but I just thought it was creepy, Carson was too scared and Lorne confirmed the lullaby story but said he was too excited to even try to sleep so…"

"That's when the idea of bringing more people popped out?"

"No, this one started much later, when we got a grip on the City, when we had supplies and so on." John closed his eyes and listened to the wind for some time. "We were standing here and she told me that she felt sadness from everywhere when there were no children in the City. She told me she thought the city was lonely and it needed life to revive to its full potential. We established by that time that she too was able to feel the city's moods. She came to the conclusion the city missed children."

"You mean that what I felt when Jinto came out of that wormhole was actually Atlantis being happy?"

"You should fell how it was when Teyla came here with her newborn!" John laughed. "Half of the natural ATA carriers were like on drugs. It's a shame Elizabeth was not here to see Torren, she loved kids and I think she was sad she didn't have her own."

"She missed a lot." Said Jack looking in the other direction. "Anyway, you will be able to share stories about Elizabeth, because in the first batch of newcomers there will be an elderly woman by the name Susan Weir."

"You mean…"

"Elizabeth's mother, yes." Clarified Jack. "I thought it was only fitting to get in the first group the family of the one who made it possible."

"Why do you retire?" Asked John out of the blue piercing the general with his gaze.

"I'm tired."

"Oh, come on…"

"Okay, the truth is I intend to settle."

"This is going to be interesting" murmured John to himself knowing exactly who this settling was going to involve.

"You said something, Sheppard?" Warned O'Neill.

"Nothing, sir, I… I've got to go…" Said Sheppard. "I need to sleep and prepare before tomorrow, morning briefing." And he left as fast as he could.

But there was nothing that could make him sad now. Elizabeth's dream was coming true.


	4. Chapter 4 Encounters

_**A/N:**_

_I hope you like what I posted so far and I hope even more that you'll like how it plays out in the following chapters. _

_Thank you, Pharaonin, my great beta._

_Let me know what you think if you have some time _

**Encounters**

It was hard to restart a traditional mission plan with his team scattered to different planets.

Rodney went to visit the kids with nearly depleted ZPM. John had a hunch the scientist was really fond of the little ones no matter how much loathing for them he said he sported. He had actually been smiling when he agreed to go. Then he suggested taking Jennifer with him for some medical checkups. Sam saw he wanted to spend some quality time with his fiancée. Oh yes, everyone knew even if it was supposed to be a secret.

Ronon made contact with some survivors from Sateda whom he thought he would never see again so there was no point in asking him to stay. He went for a week to show Amelia his friends. It was quite obvious that he was interested in her and she was happy with the fact. Maybe she had what took to get this tough shield out of him in the future. Now they were friends.

Teyla was still on Athos and since he felt a little like he was trespassing on her family moments he just decided to keep far from the first planet he visited in this galaxy.

Even Beckett was out to do some inoculations. Knowing him he just got dragged somewhere else. Lorne was taking care of him, so John was calm about his health. Anyway, Each member of Lorne's team was carrying a huge box with medications when John saw them last, just before going through the gate.

He was left on his own and Sam saw that he was restless. She asked him to see if there was still that safe heaven somewhere out there, the planet where an ascended Ancient resided. John did not particularly want to go there, he had never come back after the 'sharing' but since there was nothing else to do on Atlantis he agreed anyway. Sam was more than competent to be fine without him. Thinking of that he recalled something from his past as he flew through the gate to Proculus and started a leisurely descent towards the village. He did leave Elizabeth in Atlantis on a daily basis without the senior military officer and her chief scientist at the same time. If something had happened to her then… But now it seemed like a completely different lifetime.

He stepped out of the jumper and looked around. He parked just outside the village and cloaked the jumper, just in case. He stepped into the village and was instantly overwhelmed with the number of people that he saw. Either people on the planet magically multiplied in all shapes and sizes or there were people from another worlds.

Then he spotted Zarah, the abbot they met the first time. He noticed John as well and approached quickly.

"It's so great to see you again, Colonel Sheppard." He smiled. "We did not expect any of your people to arrive here, but we are happy you can visit."

"It's not quite what I expected."

"I know, you're referring to Athar's decision not to allow your people to stay here." The abbot looked like he was really sad about the fact. "It was allowed, and, actually encouraged, just about 6 cycles of our moon ago."

"Can I see Chaya?" Asked John. Something was wrong. Really wrong. Images from the island of criminals popped uninvited to his head. "I need to speak to her about it."

"Chaya is not here." Answered Zarah. "She left with Athar to protect us."

"She what?"

"She told us Athar had another way of protection for our people and that she wants us to cherish all those she will send. Chaya went with her as her priestess."

"Did anything happen here lately, anything dangerous?" Asked John.

"There was a great flash in the skies 5 cycles ago and then 4 cycles ago we were sent those people to help, provide and teach peace and calm way of life far from fear."

"And Chaya…"

"Has not been seen here since she was taken by Athar."

"Crap" murmured John to himself. This was starting to look more and more strange. First Athos, now Proculus…

"Thank you Zarah" John said aloud mimicking gratitude. "I will look for something on your market for my friends and I promise to be back in the future."

"We will welcome you gladly."

Carson was more than exhausted. He'd had hardly any breaks during the day and it was long dark now. He came here to help and help he did. It was not that he was not happy – he was a doctor at heart and he felt it was his calling but after nearly fifteen hours of working straight everybody would have had enough.

He headed towards the bed that he was given for the night in one of the finest houses in the village completely ignoring food that was left for his sustenance. He was almost too tired to eat. Then, when he was about at arm's length from the bed he heard a slight tap on the door.

"Enter" He said resigned. "If you absolutely have to make this call right now…" He muttered to himself.

He smiled, however, when he saw Jinto entering the room. The young boy was a familiar face. But then Carson noticed a hooded figure coming in just after the boy.

"Doctor Beckett, I have a request." Started the Athosian boy. "Can you keep a secret, please?"

"I'm a bloody doctor, of course I can keep a secret."

"I would be forever grateful if you could do this for me if you can." Spoke the tall man from behing Jinto. "I have a matter of utmost urgency and importance, but the need is for no one to know about my visit here."

"I will tell nothing." Carson decided to help hearing the plea in the voice of a stranger. "You have my word."

Then the stranger put down his hood and showed his face. "Jinto…" he started to ask, but was not allowed to finish. The boy put a comforting hand on his arm and rushed to the door to observe the situation outside.

"You have golden eyes…" Carson discovered when the stranger came closer to the light. "You are an Ancient!"

"I am a healer, just like I suppose are you." The stranger said with a worried voice. "I need your help with one of my patients."

"You?" Carson was shocked. "You can cure whatever there is besides the plague and I can't help you with that, we tried and failed."

"It's not about one of my kind."

"Then…"

"There is a human who is sick." The healer averted his gaze for a while. "We are able to manage all the symptoms, to help her with what's outside but we are not able to help her eliminate the problem."

"Her? It's a woman you mean."

"She weakens every day. Each day she is more tired, more pale, a little less energetic despite our efforts."

"You should have brought her here to me." Beckett was already looking through the contents of one of his boxes. "It would be easier to see what's wrong with her if I could examine her."

"The truth is I am here despite her wishes. We were not allowed to make contact with any of your people. It was Jinto who told me he had suffered a very similar disease and you cured him with one of your medicines. I am just not going to let her waste away."

"We're healers, we do not let people suffer if we can help them." Carson said handing the stranger a pack of pills. "This ones can be crushed and mixed into a drink, but keep it far from alcohol, it would make them harmful."

It was the first time the stranger looked him in the eyes. Carson gave him the pills and saw a great amount of gratefulness in them.

"It's one pill three times a day." Beckett informed.

"There is one more thing. The woman… she is going to give birth in the next two weeks by my estimation."

Carson thought for a few seconds and then recovered another pack.

"Give her these until the birth. Then switch gradually to the first ones I gave you." He gave the stranger another pack and then a small bottle. "And add these to her meals two times a day, three droplets to a semi-solid meal. It would be beneficial for her and the baby."

The ancient bowed his head in gratitude and then pulled up his hood again.

"I am grateful for your help and ask you once again you do not inform anyone about me, Jinto or our visit. He would be in trouble as surely as me if it became known on either side."

"You have nothing to fear from me." Declared Beckett. "I hope your patient gets better soon."

"If we ever meet again, human healer, my name is Kenosos."

John looked for something for Torren John and found a cute toy. He was just looking for something for Teyla when he accidentally bumped to a cloaked figure. He caught a glimpse of the face and knew he saw her from somewhere. After several minutes he knew why the face seemed familiar. It was definitely Chaya. It was too late to try and find her but it was definitely getting stranger by the minute.


	5. Chapter 5 Curious

_**A/N:**_

_Hello everyone. I'm glad to tell you that this story has 11 chapters written already, 10 of them are already betaed by Pharaonin. She is a great beta, finding all the repetitions and inconsistencies in my writing. _

_I will be posting more frequently from September on but here you have another chapter. Hope you like it. And please, take time to express your opinion sometimes, even if just to give a sign you're reading and that I should even continue ;)_

_Hope you like it._

**Chapter 5 - Curious**

Welcoming the people in the City was a very stressful experience for everyone. It had been almost a month since the preparations started but everyone still felt that something was missing. Having civilians – families in the city was going to be tricky. John stood on the balcony with Sam watching the crowd gather in the lower sections of the gate room. Jack was standing in front of the gate directing newcomers. One of the women, an older lady came through the gate with a small bag. She noticed Jack and neared him with a smile. He hugged her and directed her to walk up the stairs unlike the rest of the quests.

"Susan, I would like you to meet two most important people in Atlantis." Jack showed her the two colonels. "Colonel Samantha Carter and Colonel John Sheppard. And here we have Mrs Susan Weir."

Susan welcomed Sam warmly and then looked at John. She stared at him for a long while and then came closer and hugged him affectionately. Sheppard didn't know what to do about it. He was always awkward with too much hugging.

"You are the one who refused to leave my daughter…" She whispered. "You are the one who tried until the very end to find her."

"The one and only." Commented Jack with a smile.

"John, maybe you can show Mrs Weir to her quarters?" Suggested Sam with a smile. "I thought about assigning her quarters next door to where Dr Weir lived if you're okay with that."

John nodded and led Mrs Weir towards the transporter when Samantha Carter welcomed the newcomers and started to go over all the basic rules. First time in a transporter was a pretty creepy experience, especially just after travelling through the wormhole for the first time. And it just happened to the woman who gave birth to Elizabeth Weir. Considering everything she was holding very well. John led her to the quarters Sam designated but stopped just a few meters from them.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Asked Susan looking worried. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah… " John continued walking and showed Susan the door. He showed her how to unlock the door. "Now I will need to key the door to your specific DNA…"

John wanted to activate the controls when Susan Weir tapped lightly on the controls and the door opened.

"Wow…" Murmured John. "It should be closed by default… at least until I program it to respond to your touch. I guess Atlantis still remembers Elizabeth."

"Will you tell me about her?" Asked Susan Weir looking through the window. "I ceased to recognize my daughter after she came back after the first year here…"

"It would be better if I took you somewhere."

Sheppard led Mrs Weir to the next quarters and opened them. There was a lone candle standing on the table and a handful of flowers from the mainland on the bed. There was also a lot of strange objects on the shelves and floor.

"There is a rule that things obtained in Pegasus galaxy are not given to families with the rest of personal items." Said John touching lightly the pot he gave Elizabeth for her first birthday in Pegasus. "So we took our time and selected everything that could have been restricted and stored it. Since it seemed that no one wanted to intrude in the space left vacant by Elizabeth we decided to put those things here."

"What about the flowers?" Susan took them and smelled.

"There are always fresh ones." Answered John. "We have our own greenhouse here as well as ancient hydroponics lab, but since we started to visit mainland again they come from there. We don't really know who leaves them, not every time at least."

"Was she living here from the beginning?"

"Yes. But she waited until every other member had his own place before she took quarters for herself. And she chose this place specifically" John led her to the window. "Just look there. She was able to see the most amazingly looking part of the city from her room. She had to feel that because the view was quite unattractive until we received a ZPM at the beginning of our second year here."

"It was sent to us about an hour ago." Said Sam leading John to the monitor in the control room. "We needed to decode it and it took a lot of time. We asked you here as soon as we saw what it was about."

"So, what WAS it about?" Asked John.

"Just watch." Said Sam and nodded to Amelia to play the video. "I think you know this woman…"

John was a little surprised to see Larrin's face on the screen.

"Hi John, I bet you're somewhere there. I just wanted to say that I visited Proculus today and discovered that you were back in the area. I think we need to talk because there is something going on in here and you would probably like to know what. Also, we need a little help from you. So, please visit me on a planet with this address" she showed an address on a screen behind her "where I will be staying the next four days so you can discuss it with your superior. Larrin out."

"How does she know I'm not the superior?" Exclaimed John and saw smirks on the faces of the crew. "What! I can be a perfectly reasonable leader."

"You need to go to see her." Said Sam confidently. "We estimate that this transmission travelled in subspace for about three days so you should hurry."

"You're not suspicious?"

"We worked with the Travellers before and it did us good, remember?"

"Yeah, my ribs still hurt sometimes…" John remembered suddenly his first encounter with the woman from the video.

"You going or should I send Lorne?" Asked Sam.

"Give me ten minutes." Said John and ran towards the stairs. He paused for just a few seconds to ask Chuck to get the message to the rest of his team to meet him in gateroom in full gear.

It was a short notice but after years of practice it took little over five minutes to report ready for the trip through the gate. John and Sam explained the situation quickly while Chuck dialed the gate and the AR-1 went through the wormhole soon after.

"You certainly took your time getting there" said a familiar woman when they stepped onto the grass.

"Always such a great host, aren't we?" Answered John looking at Larrin with a lopsided smile on his face.

"Always such a smartass, aren't we?" She reposted.

"Ok, enough with the pleasantries. We know each other, right?" Sheppard pointed to the rest of his team and Larrin nodded. "So maybe we should proceed to talk about that thing that is so important that you even actually said 'please'."

"You'll need to come with me." With that the woman turned and started walking towards the trees. "We will fly to one of my ships then to a planet we occupy."

"And how will we get to that ship of yours, pray tell…" Smiled John with disbelief. "You told me at some point that you make it a point to keep your ships in the space all the time. So-" John wanted to say something but the sight just took his voice away from surprise.

"Is that a jumper?" Asked Teyla.

"A brand new jumper." Said Rodney coming closer in a few long strides. "Not a scratch, looks even better from the outside than the ones we found in Atlantis…"

"Where the hell did you get it?" Asked Sheppard.

"I'll tell you more after I show you the real shocker."

"You mean there is something more?" Asked suddenly Ronon.

"Just wait."

When the team entered the ship it was obvious that the machine was new. What was more there was an ancient-looking push-button console installed on the control panel. John and Rodney immediately came closer and started investigating it.

"Where did you get the idea to interface the microchemical receivers with…?" Started Rodney but Larrin didn't let him finish.

"It's not our idea, we were given the jumper with all these features installed already." She provided. "We use it with the buttons usually but you should be able to do it 'the old fashioned way'" Larrin pointed with her hand to the pilot chair and looked at Sheppard. "The chair is yours."

Sheppard moved aside the button console and took the stick. He felt a surge more like the one from the chair than the one from Atlantis' jumpers. This was a powerful ship. Getting to the orbit of the planet took them a much less time than he was used to and he was surprised to see Larrin's ship looking better than ever.

"Had a repaint when we were gone?"

"Courtesy of the same group who supplied us with the jumper." The woman informed him. "Enter the bay on the left."

"Wait, is the radiation leak fixed, by any chance?" Sheppard wanted to be sure before risking going in.

"Just like everything else, Sheppard, just fly there already."

After arriving in the bay Larrin just gave order to get to their destination and led John's team out of the jumper into the obviously newly revitalized bay. Rodney stayed by the Jumper looking at every single new feature he could see at the first glance. Teyla and Ronon accompanied John and Larrin in greeting the travelers that approached them.

"How long?" Asked Larrin.

"About five minutes by our estimation" answered one of the younger men. "But we didn't have time to check everything yet, you know how much time it takes."

"We should better head to the observation deck." Larrin said to Sheppard. "Can you get McKay to come with us, he should see it too.

They managed to arrive on the observation deck just in time to witness coming out of hyperspace over a little, green and blue planet that looked like it could be a perfect paradise for settling. But there was another thing that kept the attention of everyone of them. Astonishing mass of debris and parts of ships floated in the space above the planet. Teyla was the first to came closer to the glass in front of them and put her hand on the transparent wall. It was a sight she had never witnessed before.

"Is that what I think is?" Asked Ronon.

"I don't think so because I think it is a Wraith hive." Answered Sheppard.

"Not just one" added Rodney clearly in awe. "At least two hives and I can see at least three front parts from cruisers… And a lot of dead darts and the rest of the debris… I can't identify."

"You want to know exact numbers?" Asked Larrin coming closer to the glass herself. "It was seven Hives and about twenty cruisers. You can add to that a lot of darts. I was there when they were destroyed when they wanted to cull the new travelers settlement. They were busted mercilessly."

"By whom?" whispered Sheppard.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Answered Larrin. "Would you all like to get something stronger to drink and talk?"


	6. Chapter 6 New power in the galaxy

A/N: Hello everyone, I'm very sorry that I kept all of you without an update for months. I was working on finishing this story before I could start on another one. This is finished, it has 18 chapters total, it has been sent to my wonderful beta Pharaonin today so there is a possibility that this would be posted regularly every week and finished before the New Year :)

I hope you like the story.

Have a nice time reading. :)

**New power in the galaxy**

Something stronger was a very good idea. Seeing the destroyed fleet of Wraith ships was not really easy to get used to.

"So, what's the story with the fleet" asked John when Larrin finally joined them at the table.

"We were ferrying people to this planet for a few days since one of our own was culled lately and it was a perfect planet for us to settle. Far from major wraith paths, without a gate to find us, with a perfect land and all. And then a Wraith hive showed up."

"You said there were seven hives…" Interjected Rodney impatiently.

"It was about a month ago." Said Larrin. Then she continued her story. "We were saved by an unknown spaceship. It sent a message first to the wraith then after the hive fired on it it destroyed the hive in three shots."

"Wow?" said Rodney.

"Furthermore the ship docked us, sent three of their engineers to help us with the systems, gave us this modified jumper you had the pleasure to fly AND offered us protection."

"Like from the Wraith?" Asked Ronon seeming interested in the topic for the first time.

"You can see the result of the 'protection' on your own." Commented Larrin. "We were given a device to be inserted in our navigation console in case the Wraith came and threatened us here. So as soon as we noticed the fleet we did as asked and two minutes after that the Borealis came."

"Borealis?" Asked Teyla.

"That's the name of a ship." The Traveler explained. "She's huge and powerful and definitely Ancient tech."

"And by huge you mean…" started John.

"Huge. It's like it was designed to dock smaller ships, just like this one." Replied Larrin with a serious face. "It's a power to be feared."

"And you're saying that what was once a small Wraith fleet became what we just saw." John wanted to straighten it up. "That a single ship did that."

"Yes."

"Were they threatening you" asked Teyla, "or demanding something from you for their protection?"

"No. They just ask the protected peoples to consider giving up some of the supplies to help in keeping the crew of Borealis alive."

"Wait. Peoples? As in more than you?" Asked Ronon.

"We know of at least three planets under their protection." Answered Larrin truthfully. "And not one of them was made to relinquish food. They do it voluntarily. Sometimes Borealis does not take the offerings."

"Like they're not good enough?" Ronon again. "Creepy."

"No, not like that." Countered Larrin. "They do not take when there is not much food for the population or when they have enough for themselves."

"How do you know that?" Asked Teyla. "Maybe they just say that?"

"My sister is there, she knows what is happening inside."

"You mean you have a spy?" Asked Rodney.

"No. It's another thing that characterizes Borealis. They request at least one person from each place they protect to be some kind of liaison. At first I thought it was to ensure our submission but after three weeks and Lanis' visit I changed my mind about it."

"Don't tell me" grumbled McKay. "Your sister looks like you, doesn't she…"

"She is fifteen. Last time I spoke to her she was about to take position as one of the officers on the bridge of Borealis. And she was very happy."

"You just spoke to her, you didn't actually see her, did you."

"No, John, but she IS okay. Besides, I know people who were on Borealis and they get to visit their families every few weeks."

"Wait, wait!" interrupted Rodney. "She is now one of the OFFICERS?"

"Yes."

"She has all the access to the ship itself?"

"From what I understand, yes. She is a talented mechanic so I was not surprised."

"It doesn't sound like the Ancients." Commented Ronon.

"But they are." Said Larrin.

There was a long pause while John's team tried to digest the information.

"Borealis certainly fights the Wraith, John" said Larrin. "But if they turn on humans we can be in a lot of trouble."

"Anything on their leader?"

"I don't know much."

"Tell us what you know." Said Ronon impatiently.

"It's a woman, about forty something if Lanis got the right impression. She has long brown hair and she is definitely NOT an Ancient, but they seem to revere her for some reason. Oh, and she was pregnant."

"Whoa… this sounds less and less like Ancients."

"I also know that they took residence on one of the planets the Ancestors used to live on before the beginning of the war with the Wraith."

"Teyla…?" Asked John noticing the look on her face. "Is something wrong?"

"Larrin, can you tell me if the Athosians are one of the protected peoples?"

"Teyla?" Asked John.

"I believe they are one of the first that were offered this deal, why?" Answered Larrin a little confused.

"That's why they came back to Athos, John, because it was safe!" She concluded. "And the last time I spoke to Halling before we left for Earth he told me my people missed their home and the only reason they didn't go back was because the planet was crowling with Wraith."

"That would make sense actually." Decided John but there was something else that obviously worried Teyla. He decided not to ask.

"Okay, you wanted us to help you. What is it?" Asked Rodney. "Let's get it done and go home."

"I need you to initialize some control panels on the ship." She answered. "No one here has the gene so…"

John sent Rodney and Ronon to the Jumper so they could assess the damage done to the Hives and went with Teyla to help the Travelers. He wanted to talk to the Athosian for a while alone to find out what was bothering her. He was about to ask but it was her who started.

"I need to visit Athos on my way back to the city, if is that all right with you, John?"

"Not a problem. We will visit for a while and then…"

"I mean alone." She said. "I need to talk to Halling about something … personal."

"Okay… You gonna tell me what's the problem?"

"No." She answered a little too quickly for his liking. "I don't want to be rude but I want to, I need to do this alone."

"Problems?"

"John…"

"Okay, you will tell me when you feel like it, allright?"

"Okay."

After being transported to the nearest planet with a gate Teyla was left to go to Athos when John, Rodney and Ronon returned to Atlantis to relay the new information to Colonel Carter.

Teyla walked straight to the tent she knew belonged to Halling. She tried not to be mad but it was hard.

"Teyla?" Asked the man after she entered. "Is something wrong?"

"Did you make a deal with Borealis?" She asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Is Borealis' protection why you came back to this planet?" She waited for her old friend to say anything. "Answer me!"

"You shouldn't be angry with us for coming back home on their terms. Atlantis was in no position to grant us that."

Teyla started to pace around the tent. When she lost some steam she turned to look at Halling and she saw he was not going to defend himself further.

"It's not that you came here, Halling." She said softly after she sat down. "It's rather that you didn't tell me that."

"It was one of the terms of the agreement when they heard we knew the new inhabitants of their City." Said Halling sitting beside her and taking her hands in his. "We were asked to accept some terms that we thought were really harmless to us as well as to others. In return we got to go back and feel safe in our home."

"And…?"

"We are to stay relatively closely to the camp."

"So you're in a cage…"

"No, we are not." Answered Halling. "We are not to get close to the old city, that's all. And we gave up a part of our crops, but that's all. We do not suffer from this agreement, Teyla." He waited for her response but she was silent. "You were far away Teyla. We needed to go on with life when we didn't know what happened with Atlantis and you onboard."

"I'm sorry for my outburst. It was uncalled for."

Halling just touched his forehead with hers in a well known gesture.

"We were all worried but it's all behind us. We are looking into a brighter future now."

John , along with the rest of his team, was sitting in Carter's office in front of Sam and O'Neill relating the new information they had managed to gather. It was crucial to understand what was happening before it got to threaten their lives.

"You mean this ship just gets there and blows Wraith to pieces?" Asked O'Neill with a smile.

"No, that's what made me wonder, so I asked Larrin to clarify it for me." Answered John. "It seems that they get there and send an ultimatum – the Wraith can either retreat or be destroyed. Meanwhile the information is also distributed through subspace to the other ships in the area."

"It's awfully similar to something we already know." Said Sam looking strangely at O'Neill.

"And that would be?" John asked.

"The protected planets treaty from the Milky Way, Sheppard." Answered Jack with a sigh. "Asgard versus Goa'uld. One with superior weaponry but not a lot of ships in the area and the other… you can see the similarities, can't you."

"We can do nothing about it right now." Decided Carter. "Let's finish for today. John, as soon as Teyla comes back from Athos I want you to start visiting planets in search of good trading partners, we're going to stay here for some time and we'll need contacts."

"Got it."


	7. Chapter 7 Unexpected friend

A/N:

**Unexpected friend**

"Unscheduled Off-World Activation!" Informed Chuck when Sam came closer looking at him questioningly.

"Raise the shield." Sam gave a command almost automatically.

"Already done, ma'am." Young technician looked at the ancient console and smiled. "But it's Colonel Sheppard."

"How do you know?" Asked Sam looking at the still idle screen on the man's laptop. Then the computer beeped and there was an information that indeed it was AR-1. "Lower the shield."

Sam rushed towards the stairs. Sheppard and his team were not due to be back for at least another two days. After Lorne returned and announced that the people of the planet were farmers and had a lot of supplies but would be hard to negotiate with it was decided that Teyla would be the best to go. John and Ronon didn't want her to go alone so they had all gone. If they came back early it could mean only one thing – they did not manage to get the trade agreement…

Or maybe that was not the case, Sam decided when she saw all members of the team loaded with supplies.

"I take it the negotiation went well…" She started before seeing confused smiles on their faces. Then there was the awkward look Teyla gave John… "Maybe you should be checked out by Beckett and then tell me what deal you did strike. In my office?"

"We'll be there as soon as Carson lets us out." Commented John after passing the bags to the marines standing nearby to take them to the storage.

After sending AR1 to be checked Sam came back to the consoles and looked at Chuck questioningly. Chuck acted as if he didn't notice the stare and it was Amelia who decided to share the information.

"The ancient equipment is faster in tracking, receiving and identifying all the signals, code included." The young woman said. "And Chuck is able to see what it decodes a few seconds before our computers."

"Wow." Commented Sam. "How many people can do this?"

"Just Chuck…" Amelia smiled. "It seems Atlantis prefers some of us to keep watch over it. Chuck is shown those blinks on the console. Noone else is."

"Then I will just stick to my original statement, which is 'wow'." Said Carter and patted Chuck on the back. "Keep up with the excellent work, everyone."

When John and his team finally got to Sam's office half an hour later they still looked a little confused. They sat in the chairs and looked at each other until Sam finally tired of waiting and issued her question.

"So, what's the deal?" She asked. "I take it we will be able to get some part of our supplies from that planet?"

"Most of it if we want…" murmured John.

"How much grain are they prepared to trade?" Asked Carter looking at Teyla.

"Depends on how much we ask for…" said John looking to the floor.

"What do you mean?"

"Sam," started Teyla "we were told that we will get all the grain we ask for."

"That sounds strange."

"You bet it does." Commented John.

"What did you offer in return?" Asked cautiously Sam.

"Oh, we offered, and offered…"

"John!" silenced him Teyla.

"Would someone just tell me what happened on that planet?" Sam snapped.

"They told us they will get us whatever we want without any giving on our part." Summed up Ronon.

"They what?" Asked Carter.

"Looks like we tried to negotiate with inhabitants of a protected planet." Said John. "Apparently Borealis declared us, and I mean all of us, who are in Atlantis, worthy and lawful descendants of themselves and the only ones having the right to inhabit the city. What's more, the inhabitants of the planet were told that Borealis will look very kindly on helping us."

"That's really strange."

"You tell us…" grumbled Rodney. "They were like some religious fanatics!"

"But the only organized religion in this galaxy is belief in Ancients…" said Sam.

"Yup. That's right." Said John. "Seems Borealis is really crewed by the ancients."

"Or someone really great in impersonating them." Theorised Rodney.

"Anyway, we've got ourselves a potential supplier."

"Okay, thank you for this info" said Sam massaging her temple. "Now go get some rest, you deserved it."

Sam looked at her clock after the primary Atlantis team left. It was far too early to finish her work for the day but she'd just had a lot on her plate lately. And since changing quarters last week going there seemed much more tempting.

"Hey, Sam!" A familiar, smiling face appeared in her door.

"Is there something else we need to talk about, John?" She asked.

"Just wanted to tell you to take it easy." He threw her a pendrive. "There is a control room full of people doing their job. You can take a break once in a while."

"And what is that?" Sam asked pointing to the small flashdrive.

"Solitaire game. Elizabeth used it to unwind, break the tension. I just thought you could use it." He said. "Or you can just call it a day and go rest."

"I have much more to…"

"No, you don't" He smiled. "And I know you can just go relax. I will call you if something is up."

Sam raised from her chair and went to the door. "Thanks, John."

She entered her quarters and managed to make it to the bed before she just collapsed.

"Tough day?" Asked Jack coming out of the second room of the suite and sitting beside Carter.

"You betcha!" Sam murmured into the pillow.

"Tell me?"

"We're either really lucky or really screwed." She said turning to look at him. "Looks like the crew of Borealis knows we are here and so far seems to second it."

"Sounds good."

"It can be just some elaborate plot to get to us…"

"Hey, they have the big, powerful ship." Jack lifted her and started massaging her arms. "We should assume they know where we are and with the Ancient tech they are able to wipe us from the face of the planet. Can but didn't do this by now. Now sleep."

"Jack?" She asked snuggling into him under the covers he drew over them both. "When are we going to tell them?"

"That we started living in the same suite of rooms?"

"That they know, John is the one who proposed I check it out."

"Ah, that thing…" O'Neill inhaled deeply. "Not today."

"Obviously" said Sam on the brink of sleep.

Teyla went to visit her people the next day after Sam granted her another free week. Not that she needed any permission. She just wanted to stay on John's team, seeing that Atlantis was the most powerful Wraith resistance group she was able to join. So she stayed in the City most of the time and visited her family as often as she could. Torren John was growing very fast and Teyla decided early on that he shouldn't be confined to closed space as would be the case on Atlantis.

Her family welcomed her warmly and she almost didn't notice Halling's foul mood in the evening when he came to bid them goodnight.

"What's wrong?" She asked him just before he left. "And where is Jinto, I expected to see him with you today?"

"It's about him." Admitted the man. "He's not back yet and I am worried something happened to him in the forest."

"I thought you agreed not to venture too far?" Said Teyla. "Jinto would certainly not go anywhere he could annoy the Ancients." She noticed he wanted to say something but had a lot of doubts about it. "What is that, Halling? What are you not telling me?"

"Teyla, there is something you should probably know." The large man said. "Not everyone is not welcome in their city."

"They live in the old city?" Exclaimed Teyla and led Halling outside the tent to give her family quietness. "And there are people going there? Is that what you wanted to tell me?"

"Yes."

"The city was supposed to be left to the Ancients from the prophecy." Said Teyla. "We thought once that those have come but we were wrong, remember?"

"It's not the case now." Defended the man.

"How can you be so sure?"

"We interpreted the prophecy wrongly, Teyla."

"What?" Asked the woman. "I would say there is not much to interpret, Halling, to be wrong about it."

"We always assumed they will come in a mighty ship and change our lifestyle."

"There is no way to come not in a ship, my friend." Said Teyla. "And we know it would probably be a battleship since all the Ancients that left and could still somehow be alive would be travelling in those."

"But we thought that 'a human woman bearing a new life will lead them' meant an ancient with more emotion and empathy towards us."

"And look how it turned out…" Murmured Teyla remembering Helia. "Halling, those prophecies are probably not going to turn true, they are not really meant to be."

"'A human woman bearing a new life' is just it, Teyla. The leader of those ancients that crew Borealis is a human."

"Yes, I've heard such stories."

"It's truth. What's more is the real correlation with the prophecy. She was pregnant when they came, she gave birth to a son not long ago." Teyla looked at him with wide eyes. "She was carrying a new life within her when they came."

"How do you know those stories are even true?" Asked Teyla without conviction. "They could tell you anything."

"I know because Jinto is well liked there. He spends much time with the child."

"Jinto?"

"Yes. He ventured there once and was accepted. He would like to be a part of the crew, I heard him tell that to Wex one day." Said Halling. "That's what I am worried about, that he somehow managed to get on a ship when it launched for battle."

"If they took him then probably…"

"Their leader would not let him go, Jinto was angry about that. She told him to wait a few years before asking again."

Teyla was shocked. It looked like there was even more she didn't know. She had grown estranged from her people in the years since they encountered the Earthlings.

"It's not your fault, Teyla." It was as if Halling understood what she felt. "We grew apart because of what you were destined to do. If it weren't for you there would be not one of us still alive and look now, we flourish again."

"Still.." Teyla started, but then they heard Jinto's voice calling his father.

"Father?"

"Here, Jinto." Called back Halling.

Teyla then witnessed a serious argument where Jinto tried to explain that 'it was nothing' and his father expressed his displeasure with his son's actions. Jinto was forced to admit that he sneaked on the board of the ship and tried to get into action but was found out. He was then left on the ground but waited for the return of the Ancients to apologize to their leader for his actions.

"You've actually seen her?" Asked Teyla.

"Ermmm…" Jinto stammered "ye-es." He was still not able to lie to her but he seemed to know something more than he wanted to let on.

"Jinto," Teyla came closer. "Will you tell me what she looks like?"

"No" answered the young Athosian after a short consideration. "I can't. I promised not to."

Then Jinto just wished them goodnight and left.

"I'm sorry for what he did." Said Halling. "I don't recognize him anymore since he discovered Borealis."

"He's in a difficult age, Halling, as well as this situation…" Teyla said pouring them both a cup of tea. "But I think he knows her."

"Knows? Her?"

"I think he's seen her before. He knows who the mysterious leader is."


	8. Chapter 8 Unexpected meetings part 1

A/N:

**Unexpected meetings part 1**

Steven Caldwell was getting ready to go back to Milky Way. Actually he as well as Dedalous and her crew were already prepared to take off but they were waiting for anyone who would like to go back with them. It was typical of the group of newcomers to contain some that will request coming back immediately. Gate travel did that to some of the people. Not everyone was cut to live in another galaxy and travel through the 'gate. He would wait for those and take them back to Earth. This time, however, Steven was also really curious how Carter would react seeing some of the new people. That's why he perched on the catwalk from her office to the control centre just in time to see the gate activating. Jack was there also, in some casual clothes, apparently to greet people.

"Where is she?" Asked Jack when no one else than Daniel Jackson came through with a smile.

"Nice to see you too, Jack." Said Daniel. "She should be right beside me."

"She?" Asked Sam looking questioningly at Jack. "Anything I should know about?"

"Just wait…" commented Steven.

"Everyone knows but me?" Mocked Sam.

But there was no one unusually familiar immediately following Daniel through the gate. The last part of the group, as always, were men with the large crates containing all the things the newcomers brought to Atlantis. And then there was a young woman helping them.

"Cassandra?" Asked Sam virtually running down the stairs.

"Sam!" Said woman exclaimed hugging Carter fiercely. "I hope you won't be opposed to me staying here?"

"You joking? Of course I look forward to having you here!" Sam said. "Anyway, who came with the idea of this surprise?"

Cassandra did not answer but she did look at O'Neill in a suggestive way.

"He will pay." Commented Sam with a smile. "We have a lot to talk about, but now I neet to take Sheppard and his team to give a little 'Pegasus 101' presentation. Then we'll talk."

"Okay."

The first part of Pegasus orientation was always the most boring since it was covering all the dos and don'ts. It was traditionally covered by Sheppard. Then Carson had some things to say and McKay at the end was the last and most laugh-worthy as always. Carter took a minute to welcome them all once more and then O'Neill came forward, making all of them wonder what had happened. As usually, the inhabitants of the City were all gathered in the gateroom and adjoining corridors just to see who came this time and how much of them will chicken out at the very beginning.

"Since we're all here, folks," started Jack "I wanted to get over with something."

"Jack?" Asked Sam. She looked around and saw a lot of curious glances. Then she saw Daniel and Sheppard sharing a knowing glance. That made her wonder what surprise did those three devise now. "What is that all about?"

Jack waited until the gateroom was flooded with people and almost everyone saw what was happening before he walked up the stairs and dropped on one knee before Carter with a whining. "I hate those hard floors. This knee will torment me for weeks…"

"Jack?" Asked Sam again seriously curious and a little light headed. "What is going on?"

"Samantha, Carter," started Jack looking her in the eyes, taking her hand and picking a small velvet box from his pocket. "Will you be my wife?"

There was a striking silence in the room followed by a loud cheering and whistles. Sam was speechless. She was sure there was some surprise prepared for her but she didn't anticipate something that important. She was lost in her own thoughts until Cassandra's worried voice woke her up.

"Sam?" Asked Jack sounding worried. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Yes" whispered Sam.

"I'm sorry" Jack said and got up looking like he wanted to apologize.

"Yes" repeated Sam cuddling into him "I will marry you, Jack O'Neill… I'm so gonna marry you…"

When the crowd heard that response the silence was once again gone. John managed to get to the happy couple to pass on to them a bottle of champagne with "at last" scribbled on it as well as Hank Landry's signature. Steven wished them good time and left to his ship for a final hour of waiting and to get his ship in the air.

There were no 'chickens', as they used to call them, this time. It could have had something to do with the very optimistic event that happened in front of all the newcomers or the fact that almost all of them were previously involved somehow with the Stargate Program. Steven was happy for them both. In fact he was one of those who just waited until those two got together officially. He was just not really happy to be travelling now three weeks to Earth just to report and rotate the crew. It could have been easily archieved with the use of Gate travel, but it seemed no one else was concerned for their time.

"Sir. Sir?" Novak's voice brought him back to the reality.

"Yes, doctor?"

"I would just like to remind you that we were asked to do some tests on our hyperdrive before and after the longest part of our trip." She informed. "We are reaching the border of Pegasus Galaxy, so…"

"All right, drop us out of hyperspace and make your tests quick." Ordered Caldwell. "Now, if you please" he addressed Marks.

The moment they exited hyperspace Steven knew something was wrong. The first hit they took mere seconds after caught them without any defensive measures, even without the shields raised.

"Raise the shield!" ordered Caldwell and Marks got it done just before the next hit shook the whole ship. "I want as much firepower as we can and get us into hyperspace now!"

"We can't enter hyperspace, sir!" shouted Novak over all the noises from raptured pipes on the bridge. "The generator was targeted in the first hit. We've lost it as well as two thirds of decks seven and eight."

"What's the situation, Marks?" Asked Caldwell

"Our weapons seem to have no effect on the three hives and our shields are at 20% already." Answered Marks, unconsciously giving all the information Caldwell needed. "We're losing, sir. We're sitting ducks and the door of the hanger are jammed."

"Sir!" Shouted Novak after taking the other seat beside Caldwell. "There is another hyperspace window opening!"

"We're dead anyway" commented Caldwell to himself. "Go for them, Marks, if we go, then let it be with a bang."

"Sir, the new ship is coming our way!"

It all happened as if in a slow motion for Steven. First the unknown vessel moving their way, then the shields being nearly depleted, the feeling of being strangely still alive and the black shadow coming between them and the three hive ships.

"Sir," said Novak looking at her screen just as shocked as Marks "the ship is covering us and firing on the hives!"

"I can live with that…"

Over the next ten minutes the situation on the Daedalus became critical. The shield was barely sustainable, several decks were lost and the ship was venting atmosphere. They were facing certain death even without the enemy fire. Then there was just a flash of bright light and they were all beamed into a large room that looked like a hangar. There were several people breathing heavily like they had not had a lot of oxygen lately and Steven decided they must have been beamed from the depressurized parts of the ship. Novak, with her usual hiccups was already tending to one of the crew who had some trouble getting up.

When the door opened the strangely familiar looking man entered and welcomed them with a gesture.

"Where are we?" Asked Caldwell straightforward.

"You're onboard the Borealis, Colonel Caldwell" answered the stranger coming further into the room. "A battleship. Your own vessel was no longer capable of carrying you so we transported you here for the time being."

"Where is the rest of my crew?"

Marks looked around and saw that there was a lot of people missing, presumably dead because of the battle damage. But then the white-clad man said something that made the situation even more strange, if that was even possible for the crew of the Daedalus.

"There are about fifty people from your ship that were severely injured. They are tended to right now by our healers."

"I need to speak to your commander. Immediately." Demanded Caldwell.

"Colonel, I don't think it's a good idea, Maia is not really in shape right now…"

"I demand."

"All right…" The man said unsure. Then he gestured toward the door. "Please come with me, I'll see if Maia will see you."

The walk through the corridors felt strangely familiar. They were very similar to Atlantis. Then it hit Steven.

"You're Janus, aren't you?" He asked. "The one that helped Elizabeth Weir save Atlantis…"

"Yes, that's about right." Was the Ancient's short and unemotional response. "Please wait here." He said when they came to a halt before one of the doors.

Steven felt quite strange. First he felt like a prisoner and then the way he and his crew were treated made it feel more like a real rescue and now he was left unguarded in the ship, presumably in front of the door to a cabin occupied by the vessel's commander.

"She's tired, Janus, and you know that" Steven heard a female voice speaking in Ancient. Thankfully Weir made him learn the basics one day. "She needs to sleep and spend time with her son, not cater to every petty need of those…"

There was a pause in the middle of the sentence that meant someone has interrupted the conversation. Then Janus exited and motioned for Caldwell to follow him inside.

He was surprised at how comfortable the room looked. It was quite small, but really cozy, with a lot of various tapestries and artifacts hanging from the walls. There was a crib, looking like an Athosian crafted it, standing in the corner. There was a woman standing in front of it, holding a child, but Steven could not see her face. She was dressed as the rest of the crew, in Ancient looking things and she had a long, dark hair. Another woman approached her and stayed by the crib when the woman, who he suspected was Maia, left the child in the bed, turned around and came towards him.

At first Steven was too surprised to say anything and he just stared at the woman with wide eyes.

"You wanted to see me, colonel." The woman spoke. "I am Maia, the commander of the Borealis."

Meanwhile in Atlantis Jinto stepped through the gate and demanded to speak with colonel Sheppard.

"What is it, Jinto?" Asked John when he got into Carter's office.

"Looks like someone might have seen lieutenant Ford, John" said Carter. "Or someone closely resembling him."

"Jinto?" John looked at the young man.

"I have seen him myself." He answered. "I would need to see a picture to be sure, but…"

"I'll get it." Said Sheppard and ran away to the control room. He came back a minute later with a data pad. "Thankfully we keep data of all the personnel that have ever been here."

"It's him." Said Jinto after several seconds.

"And where exactly did you see him?" Asked Sam. "Is it a safe planet?"

"It was on one of the planets we trade with frequently." The boy said. "He stepped through the gate and into the forest about ten minutes ago. I saw his picture in your 'memory hall' once and I thought that it would be good to tell you."

"Sam?"

"You have a go, John" Carter answered the unasked question. "Get your team and go."

"I don't think that would be the best idea."

"Why not?"

"I should go alone, without a lot of weapons." Said Sheppard and saw Carter's questioning look. "I know the guy, trust me on this, okay?"

Sam just nodded.


	9. Chapter 9 Unexpected meetings part 2

A/N:

**Unexpected meetings part 2**

John went through the gate twenty minutes later hoping that he didn't miss Ford. He left Jinto and went into the forest. He must have been watched because as soon as he got onto the clearing the dark skinned man stepped in front of him.

"Ford!"

"When I saw this kid dial Atlantis I knew you'd be here shortly."

"What happened with your eye?" Asked John noticing that the man had both normal eyes, unlike the last time they'd sen him.

"You know, new friends, with nice healing powers…"

"What new friends?"

"Borealis and its crew, of course." Laughed Aiden. "When you meet them you'll know they're great folks."

"You know more about them?"

"Yup, everything I need to know. I saw their commander, it's enough." Then Aiden just started to smile like a madman. "You'll be sooooo surprised…"

"I guess we know her?"

"Oh yeah…" The man admitted. "Now, I have to go back to my business, so…"

"Wait, Ford, maybe you can go back to Atlantis, we can help you…"

"Help in what?" Interrupted Ford. "If you mean weaning me off the enzyme, then you're a little late, sir. It's done."

"Borealis?"

"Yup. And I really have to go now…" And then Ford shot John with a stunner. "Sorry, really sorry I had to do this.

Steven looked at the woman before him and finally got back his speech.

"What is happening here?" He asked eventually.

"You were lucky we picked up the situation on our comeback from another fight." Answered Maia. "We are now affecting repairs to your ship. It was damaged."

"My people…"

"We scanned your ship and beamed out every life sign we could find. We accessed your database and I'm afraid according to your passenger manifest we've been unable to locate three people. I'm greatly sorry, colonel, but it seems they didn't make it through the attack."

"What?"

"I believe interfacing our shields is already done and my crew started repairing your life support and hull already. It should not be much longer until you can come back there if you wish."

Then they heard the child wailing quietly from the crib.

"I'm sorry, colonel" said Maia, "but apart from a battle my child is my absolute priority." And with that she stepped towards her offspring and took him into her arms. She was smiling warmly and seemed to be suddenly uninterested in the rest of the world. The child, on the other hand, stopped making noises immediately.

"Looks like your child missed you…" Caldwell commented loosely.

"I need to leave him for the time of battle." She said turning to Steven. "I needed to do this since he was born, he needed to learn that he has to wait sometimes."

"It's a boy?" Steven more stated than asked.

"His name is Mercury."

"Mercury…?"

"It was proposed by Janus and Chaya, actually" Maia smiled. "I think they planned it from the moment they learned I was pregnant. And since they were the ones closest to family I decided to honor their wishes."

"Seems appropriate." Commented Caldwell coming closer and looking into the infant's face. "The name I mean. In our mythology there was a goddess, Maia, her son was Mercury."

"I know."

"You do?" Asked Steven. "I was under impression that you didn't remember…"

"What?"

"Nothing. Just a slip of the tongue."

"Please, don't treat me as if I am a fool." Her expression stiffened a little and Caldwell suddenly saw something familiar in it. "I am not a fool."

"No, you are not."

"Merc, honey…" Maia started noticing her kid started to pull her hair with his little fist and got some of it wrapped around his little fingers. "Oh sweety, this hurts" she whispered.

"Let me help" said Steven and gently started to unwrap the hair. He noticed to do it with as little harm to Maia as it was possible. "Here. It's done."

"Thank you" she mouthed with a smile.

"You're welcome." Said Steven with a smile. "At least I could do something for you."

"Maia…" said Chaya entering the room. "You're needed on the bridge." Then she looked briefly at Caldwell and then back at Maia. "And Janus reported that the crew of the Daedalus is being beamed back to their ship as we speak since the life support is repaired and the hull and the shields are back needing just some more work."

"Is she able to make it to Atlantis in one jump?" Asked Maia. "And is there still much to repair?"

"Janus seems to think they will be perfectly safe during trip home and that the repairs that are left are minor even without our resources, although need a lot of people and attention."

"Does this mean I can go back to my ship with my people?" Asked Caldwell.

"Yes." Answered Maia with a sympathetic smile.

"There are two women that need a short treatments from our healers." Informed Chaya. "They will be beamed in a few minutes."

When Caldwell was taking his leave from Maia Lindsey Novak was being checked for the last time by one of the Healers. She noticed Janus entering the room and coming towards her.

"You are one of the engineers from the Daedalus, right?" Asked the Ancient.

"Yes. And you are Janus, right?" She replied with a hiccup.

"You know me?" He was curious. "You seemed sure."

"I" a hiccup "looked through the profiles of Ancients that left Atlantis, and" a hiccup again "I remember your face from there." A hiccup.

"Let me help" said a little Ancient woman putting a small hand on Lindsey's chest. The hiccups stopped immediately. "Here" the little woman smiled and left.

"It doesn't matter, doctor." Said Janus reaching into one of his pockets and taking out a small device. "I want you to take this" he gave it to Novak "and keep it safe and secret until you use it."

"What is it?"

"It's a communication device. It was modified to fit into your ports."

"Still…"

"It's for your protection." Janus started to explain. "If you have trouble with the Wraith, and you will, you need just to connect it into your navigation computer. We will know where you are and that you need help."

"You want to protect us?"

"Yes. But you need to keep it secret, I don't think your superiors would appreciate our offer."

"Why me?" Asked Lindsey studying the device in her hand. "Maybe someone else would be better…"

"I got my orders." Janus smiled. "Maia chose you specifically."

"Sounds like a big honor…"

"It is. Maia seems to know people inside out from the first glance."

Then Chaya entered the room. "Everything is set, Doctor Novak is the last one to be transported."

"I hope we see each other in a better circumstances next time, doctor." Said Janus just before Lindsey was transported to the bridge of the Daedalus.

Novak looked at all the other people that were going their separate ways to get to their responsibilities. Some of them wore their usual clothes and some, like she herself wore white clothes of clearly Lantian design. The latter were, just like her, those who needed a lot of medical attention after the battle.

"Are you okay, doctor Novak?" Asked Caldwell when she fingered the device that was safely put into one of the pockets in the white gown.

"Yes, yes, colonel, I'm okay."

"Good. You think you can go to the engine …" he wanted to send her to her duties but she just interrupted him.

"Yes. On it, sir."

The Daedalus made it to Atlantis in two days, one jump only. It seemed there were a lot of repairs to be made but it seemed a lot of systems worked better, faster after the basic repairs done by the Ancients. However, the ship still needed massive amount of work to be fully functional again, including all the job on the weapons. When the ship entered Lantia's atmosphere Steven had to talk a lot to convince Sam that he is in fact who he claimed to be.

The first thing that was done was a meeting of all the head personnel in Sam's office. Steven, Sam, Richard, John and McKay sat down trying to assess the situation even before reporting it to Earth. There were other people brought in to provide additional counsel – Teyla, Jack, Ronon and Beckett. Jack brought Daniel with him as well, to get an expert on the Ancients. Jack willed the glass to blur, a possibility they learned about after Jack badly wanted a moment of privacy with Sam a few days ago. The City gave him just that.

"So, colonel" started Woolsey. "What was so important that it could not wait?"

"We were attacked by the Wraith, that's why we came back." Answered Steven. "We suffered some damage."

"We could see that, Steven" chided Jack. "Get to the funny part."

"There were three hives attacking us, Jack." Said Steven. "And they knew where to hit. We were overwhelmed within minutes. We were losing hull integrity, Jack, the life support failed, it looked hopeless." He looked at O'Neill and then at Sam, who knew best from the whole group how those vessels were constructed and how they operated.

"Doesn't look that bad to me, Steven." Commented Sam looking at him suspiciously. "And you managed to get back using hyperspace…"

"Because we had help." Said simply Steven. "We were saved by Borealis and returned to the state where we could travel back safely. They even took care of the wounded on their own accord."

"Wait" interrupted Daniel "didn't you say that all the intelligence suggested the ancients are the crew?"

"They are, doctor Jackson." Said Steven with a forced smile. "I can assure you that they're in fact the Ancients."

"They can be pretending to be…" started Daniel.

"You may be familiar with the first officer aboard Borealis. His name is Janus." Caldwell silenced him. "He matches the image from the database." Then he turned to John and his team. "And you should be familiar with the second officer and personal attendant of the capitain. Her name is Chaya and she didn't want me speaking to her commander."

"Chaya?" Spoke unexpectedly Beckett. "Lass was not a solider, colonel."

"But she is an officer on the battleship. Ancient worship, better to say. And as much as I can tell it has a lot of Asgard features."

"You were onboard?" Asked Woolsey.

"We all were. Me and my whole crew. I told you Dedalous was not fit for carrying people at the time. We were beamed up to their ship. They healed all injured, at least to the state where there was no risk. They repaired most of our systems and said we will be okay getting back here."

"How much casualties?" Asked Sam.

"None." Informed Steven. "I was informed that they compared the rescued personnel with our passeneger manifest and lacked some. They were certain that those were dead and so, not detectable by their scanning systems. We checked after we rested a little. Those people never made it on board, they decided to stay in the last moment and I allowed that but didn't record it. Means they saved my whole crew."

"Almost two hundred people saved." Whispered Teyla. "As well as my people and countless people from some other planets that had recently became a refuge for those who want to hide from the Wraith. All that because of a single ship…" she mused.

"It's huge, Teyla, and they have superior weaponry as well as shields."

"Exactly how huge, colonel?" Asked Rodney.

"It's at least several times bigger than Aurora class battleship, McKay." Said Steven. "Or at least that's what we were able to say from the very brief readings that were recorded before all our systems malfunctioned."

"They must have the ZPMs to power such a ship and…"

"They must, McKay" said John "but I guess they would not share." Then he added a little more quietly "they need it more right now it seems…"

"We'll need go through any data that may be still in our computers" said Caldwell. "Novak will be on it as soon as Beckett checks her out, just like the rest of the people treated by the healers."

"I'm coming back to the task right after the meeting" interrupted Carson.

"I'll try to find anything on this 'Borealis' in the Ancient database" said Daniel. "Would be helpful to have Elizabeth, she was just great with the thing."

Sam saw something strange on the face of Caldwell but it was gone before she could examine it further. "Okay. I guess that's all we need to share right now." She stated. "Thank you, Steven, for this briefing so soon. We'll need to get this situation under control as much as possible before the scheduled dial to Earth and every hour counts." She concluded. "Carson, would you be so kind to get me all the data from the checkups of Daedalus personnel when you finish your examinations? Sheppard, I would like you to contact our allies and see if you can get any more info on Borealis, Teyla, would you like to help him? And Rodney, help doctor Novak with the data. Everyone has their own piece, dismissed." Sam directed and stood to signal the end of the meeting.

"Sam, Jack, can I talk to you for a moment?" Asked Steven and stayed with them in the office.


	10. Chapter 10 Secrets

A/N:

**Secrets**

"What is going on?" Asked McKay looking back to Sam's office.

"What, Rodney?" Asked John.

"Caldwell stayed there!"

"And?" Asked Ronon. "Is that wrong?"

"No, but he didn't look like he told us everything about that ship!"

"I know, McKay" growled Sheppard. "I am aware that what he told us is not all there is to it."

"And you're going to be okay with that?"

"Do I have a choice?" John said with resignation, but Teyla heard a little annoyance there as well. "Let's get to what we were charged with."

Meanwhile in Sam's office …

"What is it, Steven?" Asked Sam.

"Can we talk without others knowing?" Asked Steven looking through the glass to the technicians and AR-1 leaving the control room. "Jack?" He turned to the retired general.

"Oh, yeah… right." And Jack just blurred the glass.

"Wow, I still can't get over what you and John can do with the place on will." Murmured Sam looking at her fiancé." Then she looked back at Caldwell. "Go on, Steven."

"I've managed to meet the captain of the Borealis." He just said.

"You said…"

"I did it, Jack, I stayed and demanded." Continued Caldwell. "I was granted an 'audience' when she noticed me. Turned out it was her XO that didn't want me near her."

"Maybe we should bring John and McKay back, they would surely like to know…" started Sam but was interrupted rather rudely.

"Absolutely not!" said Caldwell. "Sheppard is one of the last people who should be notified and McKay will leak this information to the whole City and beyond and that's precisely what we need to avoid."

"Okay, it will stay here between us. You were saying?" Concluded Jack.

"I met her. I met Maya and I talked with her." Declared the colonel. "I even saw her son."

"The commander of the Borealis has a son?"

"The rumors were just right, Sam, the warship is commanded by a woman who has recently given birth to a son."

"Cut to the chase, Steven" whined Jack. "I can see the best is still to come."

"The Ancients call her Maya, but who I saw…" Steven stopped for a moment. "It is Weir, Jack. The commander of the Borealis is no one else than Elizabeth Weir."

"What?" Asked Sam. "Surely you were mistaken, Doctor Weir is –"

"KIA. I know, Sam." Growled Steven in frustration.

"Did she recognize you?" Asked suddenly Jack. Then he saw a blank stare on both colonel's faces and clarified. "Did Elizabeth recognize you, Steven?"

"She knew who I was." Then he hesitated for a while and obviously understood the true meaning of Jack's question. "She knew my name and my status aboard the Daedalus, but she didn't 'recognize me'."

"Jack?" Asked Sam curious as to where O'Neill was going with it. "Any thoughts?"

"Remember when we found Daniel on that backwater planet? He had another name -"

"He didn't remember a thing about who he was…" Carter looked at Jack amazed.

"Wait a minute." Caldwell raised his hand. "Are we all considering the same insane idea?"

"Not really insane if you think about it." Sam smiled. "We know an ascended being can help a person ascend. And we know that you require some qualities to actually allow it to happen, but Weir could well have them."

"Danny boy would be helpful, but you were right, Steven," said jack somberly, "we need to keep it quiet for now. I will ask Daniel some questions, leave it to me."

"In the meantime we've got to find some way to define if she is really Weir or not. And it's not that I do not believe you, Steven, it's just – "

"I understand, Sam." Said Caldwell. "That's why I brought you these."

Caldwell put his hand in one of the pockets in his green one-piece uniform and produced two small containers from it. Then he handed it to Sam and watched her reaction when she realized the contents."

"How on Earth did you get hair samples?" Sam wondered.

"I was in the right time in the right place… and I took the chance it offered." He said. "One of the samples is from Maya and the other from Mercury. I know it's too little for our tests but I understand Beckett and Keller are good with the ancient medical tech. It should do the trick."

"I will talk to Beckett." Said Sam looking again on the samples. "I will get Weir's DNA from somewhere to compare and ask him to do it out of the mainframe. This was nobody would see the result and the results would not be matched automatically to the one in the database."

"And I will come back to my ship and supervise the repairs." Said Caldwell with a wry smile. "And everyone has his own workload."

"Good job, Steven." Commented Jack.

"We've got a problem." Sam said after the door closed after Steven.

"I know" said Jack "but the Wraith have a bigger one. After all it was her who demanded to be a System Lord."

Another team came back without any intel whatsoever. It looked like the Borealis made sure that people they protected had their mouths shut. It was even more frustrating when they were denied knowledge at another place just after they were given full load of crops for free because the villagers wanted to honor the Borealis and help Atlantis just as the Ancestors wanted them. So food for free was easy to get, any information impossible. There was also no word of Ford. It shouldn't surprise him to have no news about the man, he was in hiding for a lot of time already and no one had found him. But still, after seeing him, weaned off the enzyme and with fixed eye, with that carefree attitude Sheppard remembered from the beginning of the expedition, it was much harder not to have any trail.

There was also one major factor he was so desperate to get in touch with the young man. Aiden knew the commander of the Borealis. And the way he spoke of her was disturbingly familiar and enthusiastic. Sure, John would be glad if someone has just healed him but the young man was still too happy when he mentioned they knew the leader of the Ancients. There was something going on about it and John had a feeling that Caldwell did not tell them the truth. The man looked pretty shaken when he had been beamed to the Gateroom. It could have something to do with the fact that he along with his whole crew he was rescued at the last moment from certain death but John saw how the man looked at him. It unnerved him.

There was also the fact that he was excluded from the talk he just knew had to do something with Borealis and so with the safety of the Expedition. For someone who used to be solely responsible for that part it was hard to let it go. Everything was different when Elizabeth was there. The thought came on its own.

Beckett was having a hard time hiding from Sam that he helped that strange Ancient man. He was a doctor and he was used to keep confidential all the details of his patients' health but not telling colonel Carter about the encounter was mixed with all the information that seemed to flow in about the Borealis. Since Caldwell met the crew it was obvious that they will be meeting them again. Probably soon. Carson decided to come clean to Sam. He did not intend to disclose the name of the man or even Jinto's involvement, just the fact so that there was no problem when this came out. And he knew it would. Things like that had a tendency to come out into the open even sooner when they were tried to be kept really quiet.

He walked to colonel's office and had a sudden reminder of Elizabeth. He would not be as uncomfortable with telling her the truth but he would probably by more sad that he had deceived her. As it was now he was unsure what Carter would do or tell him.

"Carson" she smiled when he walked into the room. "Just a man I wanted to see."

"I have to tell you something." Carson decided to get to the point before another topics. "I met with an Ancient some time ago. I believe he was one of the healers from Borealis."

"What?"

"He came to me for help with one of his human patients and I gave it."

"Wow." Was all Sam said. Then she looked at the man and noticed his look. "I mean I think I should be mad at you."

"Probably yes…" Carson said warily not knowing where this was going. "But…?"

"Weir would not be."

"I don't think she would." There was a brief pause. "But you're not Elizabeth Weir."

"Of that I am not allowed to forget…" Growled Sam in frustration. Did everyone here wished she-

"You're not the same because you're different, not worse, just different. And maybe you're what this city now needs. You're a 'good different', lass."

"Yeah… right. Everyone here would gladly replace me with Weir."

"Don't misunderstand. We would like to have Elizabeth back. We were all grieving her death because she was family. Bloody hell almost everyone was after that first year. And the truth is that everyone knew she was much tougher than she thought but at the same time she was still the same diplomat who stepped through the gate that first day or who was able to calm me down when I accidentally fired the drone. Or rather… my original." Carson smiled sadly. "It's hard to accept changes and you are, were the change. They need time just like they needed with Elizabeth. Don't expect they need to forget her to accept you because if you do that you'll be destined to fail here and it would be far from truth."

Carson stood patiently seeing as Sam digested what he said. He was shocked he was able to deliver such a speech. He was never a skilled orator. When he remembered what she said as he came in he decided to break her out of her thoughts.

"You said you actually wanted to see me. What about?" He asked.

"Ah, right." She shrugged and took two small containers and two vials of blood from her table and handed them to Carson. "I need you to do the DNA tests."

"DNA?"

"And I want you to do them yourself and keep them secret from everyone else on the base."

"Well, you know I can't keep all the secrets." Beckett attempted a joke and he succeeded, Sam smiled with him. "But the ancient mainframe would put them automatically in the database with comparison to all the previous samples."

"That's why I need you to do it on a machine I will personally isolate from the mainframe and that will be reset after those tests so that the results would be only on one paper, for me." Sam said. "I need you to compare the DNA from the long hair with the blood from the first vial and if it's the parent of the person with the short hair. If these are matches then I will need you to check the second vial of blood for being the other parent."

"All this without results getting saved anywhere?" Beckett clarified. "What's the purpose in such a secret?"

"Believe me, leak of this information would wreak a serious havoc here as well as on Earth if what we suspect is true."

"That sensitive?"

"Unfortunately."

"I should get it done in a few hours if you reconfigure the machine."

"Lead the way, Carson." Said Sam signaling him to do just that with a hand."

"Colonel?" Said Sheppard entering the bridge of the Dedalous. "Can I have a word?"

"What is it, Sheppard?"

Caldwell didn't look at him, just continued to work on one of the workstations. It was strange to see him working on something he could have designated to one of the techs. That could have something to do with all the crew repairing some portions of the critical systems. It left the colonel alone in the room.

"You've met the captain of the Borealis, didn't you?" He confronted, but didn't get any answer. "Why do you need to keep it a secret?"

"Because the IOA will have a field day with the fact." Caldwell answered after a long while. "And if I am right about her identity then it will get really messy for us and especially for her. The less people know the less a chance there is for a leak –" Caldwell stopped mid-sentence.

"You can trust me…"

"There is also the thing that awakening any hope and destroying the measure of peace we have here is not worth the destruction it could bring." Caldwell turned and looked him in the eyes. "Believe me, Sheppard, it's better for now. When it's time you'll be the first to be informed."

"Yeah, that's comforting!" John snorted and left the ship.

"You sure about these results?" Asked Sam the next day reading the file Beckett had just handed her. "Absolutely sure?"

"I run the test twice to be sure, that was all I could manage from the hair you provided."

"Thank you Carson." Sam smiled. "Does anyone know you did those tests?"

"No, I've been careful."

"Thank you, Carson." Sam dismissed him and immediately asked Jack and Steven to join her on the balcony outside the Control Room.

"And?" Asked Jack.

"It's a match." Sam informed. Then she turned to Caldwell. "The woman you met is Elizabeth Weir. And the kid is hers."

"So what now?" Asked Steven.

"We keep it quiet as long as we can." Said Jack. "At least we know we can trust Borealis."

"At least we can assume that." Commented Caldwell and turned to leave. "The repairs on my ship are complete. I need to get back to Earth. I'll see you in six weeks."

"See you then, Steven." Said Jack and waited for him to leave. Then he turned to Sam. "Carter, the other blood sample?"

"It's a match, Jack." Sam stepped into his offered embrace. "I have no idea how it is possible but the child is Sheppard's."


	11. Chapter 11 Emotional

A/N:

Hello, everyone! I'm sorry about the delay in posting new chapters. They were written long ago but I wanted to have them beta read before posting. Unfortunately my fabulous beta-reader is not responding to my mails and I'm afraid that there's a problem with time or there is something wrong with computer… Anyway, I decided to read it through by myself and correct all a saw was wrong. Here is the next chapter and I'll be posting the following chapters (7 after this one) very soon, maybe one every week.

Here you have the next part of the story. I hope you like it and I hope you'll keep reading to the end.

Have a nice read.

**Emotional**

Daniel Jackson was spending another night in the lab that was discovered last week. It was some kind of hall of memories and traditions. You could find there some things you would not expect from the Alterans. There was even a section about what you would call 'legends'. So Daniel sat there and explored all the text without stopping. It was a totally new side to the technologically advanced race that invented the Stargate system. It looked like they were much more passionate than they wanted to appear.

"What are you doing here, Danny?" Asked Jack entering the room. "Found anything interesting there?"

"Actually, yes." Said Daniel preparing to show his friend some part of the text.

"I didn't ask 'what' you found, I just asked 'if'!" Jack warned.

"Okay…" Daniel looked at him suspiciously. "So… why did you come here?"

"You're the expert on the Ancients… You know them."

"We're not really friends, you know. Quite the opposite rather."

"Caldwell saw the crew of the Borealis." He informed. "He says he recognized some of them from the Atlantis database. Looks like some of them were part of the group that came back to Earth and apparently ascended."

"And descended back to 'fight for the peace in the Pegasus'?" Daniel asked ironically.

"It looks that way." Jack said. "There is also the thing about a human woman leading them. You think it is even possible?"

"A year ago I would tell you that it was a ridiculous idea…" Daniel started.

"Daniel…" warned Jack.

"After reading through even a small part of this I can see that we may have underestimated the spiritual part of their nature." Daniel said. "Now I think a human might be leading them, she would just have to be quite extraordinary and have a lot to offer."

"Extraordinary, check. Much to offer – probably also check."

"Jack?"

"What?"

"You know who leads them, don't you?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah…" Jack answered truthfully. "We, I mean Carter or more precisely Beckett… did even a DNA test to determine her identity and it looks conclusive."

"You gonna tell me who it is, or…?"

"No."

"Okay…" stated Daniel unsure what to think. "Any other things?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to know if you'd be my best man?" Asked Jack. "You know, the wedding, next month…?"

"Sure, Jack. I couldn't say no, could I." Daniel answered with a smile. "Any idea who's gonna be the braidsmaid?"

"I think Sam wants to ask Vala, but it was just an idea, I don't know who she's gonna choose eventually. The Daedalus will be on Earth in eight days, so there is still time to decide. But Vala certainly WAS invited to the wedding itself, so…"

"It's going to be a momentous occasion." Said Daniel and then looked Jack in the eye and smiled widely. "I still can't believe you actually, finally asked her. It looked like you'd never make the step."

"Well, the circumstances changed a little."

"Thankfully."

When Jack left Jackson looked back to the Ancient notes. After a while he noticed Jack left a red piece of paper on the console beside him. Daniel opened it and saw one short note. It said 'Janus is the XO'. As unimportant as the message seemed it actually gave Daniel an idea where to look for his answers. He found a batch of notes left by the Ancient scientist and searched for the last ones before leaving Atlantis. One name seemed to dominate the log – Elizabeth. Then Jackson noticed the color of the note and instantly knew who was the captain of Borealis. Considering she was a replicator the last time anyone saw her it looked improbable that she would be back but there was something that could be a clue in the notes, he knew. He just had to find it. For himself and for Jack, to give him some answers.

Sam was invited by the Athosians to the mainland, where they had already started to prepare for the wedding. They were more than happy to be hosts to such an event. Carter was happy to indulge in all the fuss. Last time she did that she was not really sure of her decision. This time there was nothing to change. This time was also a much bigger shindig to plan and execute. The first wedding in Atlantis was going to be a cause for celebration for the whole city and only a skeleton crew was scheduled to stay in the cloaked City for the whole afternoon of the ceremony. There was much to see to before then.

While Sam was on the mainland taking care of the party Jack decided that some people needed to know what was happening. He knew the scheduled dial to Earth was close and offered to do it for Carter. After he gave his report to Landry he asked for a minute of privacy.

"What was it?" Asked Landry sitting in his office in front of his laptop. "Seemed serious."

"Need to meet with you, Hank. It's not something we could discuss over the phone, I'm afraid." Jack was talking business. "And I need no one to know about it."

"I can get Mitchell to sit with the communication stones half an hour from now. We can talk there without no one listening."

"Can you keep it from the IOA?"

"I can always tell them you wanted to discuss a personal gift for Carter…"

"Half an hour." Clarified Jack. "Tell Mitchell I'll be in my room and he is not, under any circumstances, to come out. I will leave him something to do. It shouldn't take more than an hour tops."

"See you soon, Jack."

"Yeah…"

Half an hour later Jack was standing, in Mitchell's body, in front of Landry's desk. He sat down in the comfortable chair and sighed.

"We've got a problem, Hank." He said. "We'll be having a lot more problems with the IOA, unfortunately."

"That much I gathered from the fact you don't want to discuss it in the control room." Said Landry. "So, who's the problem?"

"The commander of the Borealis is the problem."

"Is he going to attack?" Landry tried to get something out of Jack. "But no, that would be just a military problem, not the IOA kind of problem. I gather you managed to decipher his identity. I remember you saying that all the information suggested it's someone the expedition have met before."

"HER identity, Hank." Jack sat down and ran a hand on his face. "The captain of the Borealis, whom the Ancients call Maia… It's Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth?" Hank asked incrediously. "Elizabeth Weir, you mean? But she's dead!"

"Yeah, or so we thought…." Jack answered. "We were able to do a DNA test, Steven saw her and got a hair sample… and don't ask me how, I don't know. The DNA matches Elizabeth's. Beckett ran the test more than once to be sure. And the kid we heard about is there and is hers."

"You're right, this is going to get us in trouble with the IOA." Landry too, sat down. "Did you consider going with it to Woolsey?"

"Richard?" Jack was a little shocked. "Richard Woolsey? 'R You out of your mind?"

"He did back her up a few times…" started Landry. "And he might be able to think of some way to go over the IOA's heads with the immediate outcome of this."

"Nuts."

"Not to mention he knows how it is to lead Atlantis and she kind of saved both your asses from the replicators."

"Right." Agreed Jack. "As much as I don't like the idea of telling someone else you might be just right here. I'll talk to him to think of some ways out."

"He will think of something."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right with that." O Neill sighed. "Thanks for advice, Hank. Will you take the stones, please?"

"Thank for letting me know what a diplomatic hurricane is in our future." Said Landry just before disconnecting the communication stones. He then smiled to Mitchell who came back to himself and left the room.

Sam was wandering through all the tents that the Athosians were preparing for the party and couldn't help but feel somehow spoiled but them. It looked like everyone was trying to make everything as best as they could. Suddenly Halling came closer and looked at her with worry.

"Are you all right, colonel Carter?" He asked.

"Why are you asking?" Sam asked with a small voice.

"Because you're crying."

Carter moved a hand to her cheek and felt wet tears running there. She wiped them out and looked back at the Athosian man with a smile.

"It's from the emotions, it's nothing bad."

"You deserve, to be happy, colonel." Said Halling touching his forehead to hers. "I believe you will be happy with Jack O'Neill as your chosen mate."

"I believe that too, Halling." Sam smiled with new tears in her eyes. "I think I gave up on us being together, really together, at some point."

"I still don't understand much of your Earth culture." Halling stated leading her towards the fence that was put at the border of the clearing to protect everyone from any creature that could have been dangerous. "We Athosians believe that when one finds the one with whom one belongs he should pursue her and bond with her. Life is too short and too easily lost to wait, to hesitate."

"You sound a little like it's not the first time you say that."

"It is not." Halling smiled sadly. "I told it once to colonel Sheppard."

"Why?" Sam thought she knew what he meant but wanted to hear it anyway.

"I believed he felt a lot of attachment to doctor Weir but he denied it." Said Halling looking into the forest. Then he continued very quietly. "I believe her death was very painful to him. Especially since I think he never told her of his feelings." Then he continued in a normal voice. "I had a wife who was taken by the Wraith very soon but at least I know she knew my heart and I had time with her. As will you with O'Neill."

"Is that why you help with the party? Because you would have liked to do something for someone else?" Sam started to understand.

"We never properly thanked Doctor Weir for her support and the chance she's given us when we needed help." Said Halling. "The truth is we wouldn't be alive, any of us, if it weren't for colonel Sheppard and her. We didn't get a chance to do anything for her in return for her hospitality."

"What would you do if you could see her again?" Said Sam with curiosity.

"I honestly don't know." Halling smiled. "We can do something for you and your future mate. Teyla and doctor Keller were explaining to us the traditions of your world and we try to integrate our customs into it if you don't mind."

"I would be honored." Sam smiled. "I actually talked to Jack and we wanted to ask you if you'd be so kind to perform an athosian bonding ritual for us?"

Halling inclined his head and then left to supervise some of the preparations. Sam stood for a little longer near the border of the makeshift camp, then smiled and went to a jumper waiting nearby where one of the marines with the ATA was waiting for her.

Daniel was sitting in the chair looking into an ancient screen so intently that he didn't notice Sheppard coming into the room. The solider startled him when he put his hand on the archeologist's arm.

"You've been at it several hours straight." Stated John. "I thought you needed to get out."

"This is really interesting."

"'Daniel Disneyland'?" John asked.

Jackson grinned. "Actually, yeah. So much about the Alterans we didn't even suspected. For example did you know they had many legends?"

"I thought they relied on tech not on some religion." John said coming closer to the display. "That their only 'spiritual' belief was ascention."

"The strangest one was something I am really curious about. There is a section of the text about something called 'an avatar of Atlantis'."

"And what would that be?"

"An ancient with specific and heightened connection to the City itself, with some kind of mental and physical link." Daniel explained with wonder. "Looks like he was Atlantis' favorite at any given time."

"Sounds interesting…" started John. "Maybe you'd prefer Zelenka to link this database to the main grid and look through it in some more comfortable place…"

"You can do something like that?" Asked Daniel surprised.

"Yeah, It's actually the usual practice. Nobody told you?" Sheppard scratched his head in confusion. "I was sure I told Rodney to pass it on when he was in the neighborhood about some system…"

"Well, he didn't… It would actually be nice, thanks for an idea. But I will ask him myself."

"Want to grab some lunch?"

"Even better idea."


	12. Chapter 12 Wedding day

A/N:

Hello everyone, I hope you liked last chapter (some of you even took time to write some words of encouragement for me, thank you very much, it means a lot). There is a turning point in the story, chapter with nice begining and then "boom", so prepare for some intense chapters, with cliffhangers and such. Thankfully the whole piece is written so there will be no long delays :)

Have a nice reading.

**Wedding day?**

Sam was feeling nervous. She was sitting in Jack's and her quarters on the bed looking at the beautiful white dress that the Athosians handmade for her. She wished Jack was there with her but the husband to be was whisked away by Daniel to prepare himself before going to the mainland in completely different Jumper.

"Sam?" Asked Vala impatiently. "Sam?"

"Oh, sorry." Sam said. "I think I was distracted."

"Listen to me, Sam." Vala sat down beside her. "In an hour you're going to step into one of that shiny little spaceships…"

"Jumpers." Sam corrected. "They're called 'jumpers'."

"… jumpers" Vala said "And you're going to go to the mainland and marry Jack O'Neill. And that's why we need to start preparing you or you'll be very much late. Too much for it to be fasionable."

"I can't start putting on this gown without Teyla, I don't really know what to untie and what is only decorational."

The dress was really beautiful but the amount of lacings on the back was enormous which, as Teyla declared, was Athosian tradition to teach the new husband patience in learning his new mate. Only about a third of the laces were actually lacing the cloth and the rest was meant to confuse the man. It also did a fair job of confusing everyone who did not know exactly which strings to use.

Teyla came in about forty five minutes before the ceremony and immediately started unlacing the back of the dress.

"I'm sorry" Teyla said. "Kanaan is on the mainland already and Torren started crying… I just hope John is able to keep him calm now."

"It's okay." Samantha assured. "Vala managed to make something with my hair in the meantime."

And she did what she could. Carter had long wavy hair now and there was an opportunity to do something with them. Vala picked them up and pinned them on Sam's head in some intricate pattern. Then she added a lot of delicate, little white and red flowers Teyla brought in the morning.

"And it matches the dress, Vala. I dare say it's a masterpiece." Teyla said honestly.

"Was sure you'd like it." Vala grinned brightly.

The whole situation was positively overwhelming for Sam.

Then, when Teyla was just preparing to help Sam into the dress there was Chuck's voice over the comm. system. "Colonel Carter to the control room, colonel Carter to the control room immediately."

"What now?" Sam growled and swiftly put back on her base uniform. "Let's go, Teyla," she said, "we need to find out what it is, get it done and be back to prepare on time."

Vala followed them through the door and corridors straight to the control room where Radek and Chuck were frantically tapping on their keyboards.

"What's happening?" Sam asked worried. She didn't get any answer from the two men. "Will anyone inform me what's wrong with this base?"

"We've got Wraith nearing the City, ma'am." Informed Amelia looking up from her laptop. "If our estimations are correct they will be here in ten minutes."

"What?" Teyla managed to be vocal. "How did this happen, I thought we were monitoring their activity with our long range sensors!"

"An hour ago they were not close. What happened?" Sam asked. "Why didn't we pick them earlier?"

"Because an hour ago they were at least two days away and moving in a different direction." Growled Zelenka.

"How is that possible?" Asked Jack who suddenly rematerialized behind Carter.

"I have no idea." Answered Radek.

"Radio Sheppard" commandeered Sam "and get Rodney here ASAP."

"Already done, ma'am" answered Chuck. "We have also engaged cloak. But Colonel Sheppard won't be back in time. He's just taken off from the mainland. It's at least 17 minutes till he gets here."

"We need to get someone in the drone control chair right away so that we can get drones in the air as soon as the Wraith show up." Said Sam. "Jack?" she looked back over her arm obviously looking for O'Neill who was there just a minute ago. He was not there now. She tapped her earpiece. "Jack?"

"_What is it, Carter?"_

"We need you to sit in the chair, Jack."

"_Already got there, Sam."_

"He is initializing the chair right now." Informed Chuck looking up from the screen of his laptop. "Looks like the drones are also initialized. We have the shield up and the emergency fighter pilots are waiting in the five jumpers that are left on the base. The rest of the pilots and jumpers are taking off right now from the mainland. Colonel Caldwell was also notified and every one of his crew possible is being beamed up to the ship right now."

"Good job." Commented Sam.

"There are a lot of people on the mainland for the celebration, colonel, and they're completely helpless against he Wraith." Teyla noticed. "Can the Daedalus beam them to the City?"

"Not until they are in orbit." Sam said. "And then they will need to keep their shields up and beaming would not be possible with shields up and under the strain."

"They will be helpless." Said Teyla with a worried expression. "They will be culled…"

"No, they will not." Amelia informed. "Colonel Sheppard has left one of the jumpers there with one of the personnel with the ATA to get them into the jumper at the first sign of trouble. From what I know they are to engage cloak and keep far from danger as long as needed. The jumper can fit in a lot more if it doesn't have to fly and even close the hatch" She smiled to give Teyla hope. "The truth is they will be much safer there than we are here." She cracked a joke.

"Ma'am…" Started Chuck taping furiously at his keyboard. "I've got some strange readings about the Hive. It looks like…"

"Chuck?"

"There is more than one Hive there, ma'am." Chuck's voice was very weak. "There are at least three hives there."

"What?"

"The latest scan shows they are travelling in such a close formation that they used one hyperspace window." Chuck sounded shocked.

"That may be why they were able to travel so fast." Stated Rodney coming into the room. "They might have modified the shields and engines to make it. But there is a problem."

"Which is?"

"I think three hives would not have enough power to do it." Rodney started furiously tapping on the ancient keyboard. "I think there are at least five."

"_Five?"_ Asked Caldwell through a comm. link.

"You've been listening the whole time, Steven?" Asked Sam.

"_Yes."_ The man answered. _"Your lovely technicians thought apparently it would be beneficial to have this conversation in public with all the senior staff on line."_ He smirked.

Sam looked at the staff at the consoles and smiled at them with gratitude. It really made her day that little much easier that she didn't have to brief Steven on the situation right now and repeat everything. There was only one from the senior staff who did not join in the conversation yet. Just when she thought it Amelia spoke.

"Colonel Sheppard turned his radio off to get some more power to the engines. He hoped to cut the travel time a little."

Sam turned back to the monitor but then one of Cam's stories came to her mind uninvited. About his first day at the SGC when Landry described Walter as a "little sergeant with psychic powers" when he seemed to read in general's mind from the very beginning.

"They are about to exit hyperspace in two minutes, Sam" warned Rodney.

"_I'm in the air already."_ Declared Caldwell. _"We'll help you as long as we can so that you can retreat all your personell."_

"Do not hesitate to flee, Steven." Said Sam showing Amelia to put her citywide the moment she finished with Caldwell. "Go to hyperspace or under the shield as soon as there is enough damage. If you can't flee it would be just another waste."

"_Good luck, Sam"_ said Steven seriously. _"You're gonna need it."_

"You and us both, Steven."

Then Sam nodded at Amelia and quickly prepared before she started her speech for the people.

"Attention everyone, please." She started. "I know you waited to hear a very different announcement but unfortunately the Wraith chose today of all days to attack us in a great force. At least five hive ships are heading towards Lantia and will be over our City in two minutes. I want all the civilian personell to prepare to leave through the Gate to Earth immediately. We will establish the Wormhole in the next thirty seconds." Sam nodded to Chuck to start dialing the address. "I urge you to take only the most important possessions with you and proceed to the Gateroom without any hesitation. The shield will hold the attack for some time but neither it nor the Daedalus, whose captain assured me to fight till they can't, will be able to hold them back for long so we do not really have much time.

As of now, the evacuation of Atlantis is officially on. I know we have a lot of people on the mainland and if the Daedalus can beam them up and then back down to the City that would be good, but we have to prepare that they will be lost… Move, people. You all have your evac duties and routes prepared from the first day. Godspeed."

Sam nodded at Amelia to cut the transmission. Then looked at Rodney.

"One minute." Informed Rodney and then they heard the sound of a gate activation. "And we know now how much…"

Sam noticed with fear that the scientist's face was white as a sheet. "Rodney?"

"Nine…" Spluttered Rodney. "Nine hive ships will be here in a little less than thirty seconds."

"Steven?"

"_Heard that, Sam."_ He answered. _"We'll keep them at bay for as long as we can. I have Novak rewriting some of the security measures so that we can beam people from the mainland in the meantime, but I can't promise you anything."_

"_Just promise me you'll get out of there alive…"_ Sam heard Jack's voice.

"_Understood. Caldwell out."_

The first group of civilians chose that moment to appear in the gateroom. They were led, surprisingly, by Susan Weir. She was not carrying anything with her, unlike all the people following her.

"You'll be safe as soon as you get through the gate to Earth." She said patting one of the women in the arm and smiling encouragingly. "You'll be taken care of on the other side."

"I don't want to leave, mommy" cried one of the children on the front of the group clinging to one of the column. "I like here."

"Maybe you can come back later, sweety." Susan Weir said to a girl kneeling to be on her eye-level. "But it will be scary and dangerous here for a time and nobody wants anyone of you to be hurt." The woman comforted the child. "You may be back here in no time at all."

The child looked better almost immediately. Susan smiled to her, but looked at the control centre and saw Chuck discreetly moving his head to indicate that there was no real hope of saving the city. Sam noticed that looking for a second from the screen of a laptop. She noticed this kind of loyalty towards the late leader's mother. It interested her why or to what extent, but she did not dare to ask when it didn't interfere with the safety or any functioning of the city.

Susan didn't let anything show on her face or in her stance. She was still helping to organize the evacuation with a smile and encouragement.

"Carson" Sam started. "I need you to get all your patients into the gateroom ASAP and your team on stand-by to assist in any injuries during the evac."

"_Consider it done, lass"_ answered Beckett without a thought and Sam heard him issuing orders to his staff.

"Ten seconds!" Shouted Rodney.

"Steven…" Sam murmured into her earpiece.

"We're as ready as we can be." The man answered with a strained voice.

There was a rush and a light in the control room and some of the Atlantis personell materialized in the gateroom amongst scared civilians. Then the arrival of the enemy was announced by the City being shaken by the firepower used to get through its shield. Sam shouted to the civilians to move and Susan Weir, surprisingly calm, took back her role just as Sam noticed the white lights of the fired drones flying towards the Wraith ships that looked like a small dark patches on the light blue sky. Then she looked at the screen and the Daedalus seemed to gather the fire from three of the Hives but the remaining ones continued to fire on the City.

The ship was taking heavy damage and Lindsey Novak knew it could take no more. She had also been in the slim group aboard that was getting all the radio chatter from Atlantis. She knew the situation was dire. She wondered what she could do more but couldn't find any way to do more than her job. After one of the more powerful hits shook the ship enough to throw her to the floor of the engine room she noticed the small device given her by the Ancients from the Borealis. She scrambled to her feet and run towards the bridge pushing away everyone on her path.

"Novak?" Asked Caldwell after she got to her destination and opened the direct communication panel. "What the hell are you doing!" He shouted.

"The right thing, sir." She said after she interfaced the device and closed the panel on the side of the room.

"We'll talk about this later, doctor." Said Caldwell when another hit shook the ship. "No get back to your station!"

Novak bolted out to where her place was during the ship operations leaving all the bridge crew stunned . They were too occupied by the battle, however, to even start thinking about it more.

"Rodney!" Sam asked when she noticed him frowning and checking one of the readings twice.

"Oh no…" he said and whitened even more, if that was possible.

"What's going on, Rodney?"

"It's bad, Sam." Then he stood up from the console and shouted towards the gateroom. "We need to speed the evacuation. Move now!"

"McKay!"

"They have a lot of firepower." He said and started tapping the keyboard furiously. "The shields won't hold long. We'll last no more than fifty minutes, Sam…"

"Oh my God…"

"_Sam, we'll be unable to get anyone more beamed from the mainland."_ Sam heard Steven Caldwel's voice in her ear. _"We don't stand a chance in hell to fight with such a force. Our shields are down to ten percent."_

"I have an idea, Steven" said Sam "get back under the city's shield now."

"_But I can't do that. If I go to hyperspace from there and I would need that shortly then I can damage the city."_

"That's what I count on." Sam noticed Steven had already given order to get the ship under the city's shield. He must have understood her intentions. But Sam thought just proper to inform the rest of her staff what the plan was. "We wouldn't be able to hold the city. We need to arm the self destruct. I figured the bigger bang the better…"

There was not much to do when Rodney and Sam inputted their codes to arm the long forgotten device. They started to help with moving the people through the gate when John appeared in the control room.

"John!" Sam exclaimed. "I was afraid you got hit in the chaos outside.

"What about the drones?" He asked. "Why did you stop firing?"

"It was ineffective." Sam answered. "Jack went to look if everyone on the way has moved towards with evacuation. Lorne is helping him, you'll do good to check the west pier."

"Ma'am" Chuck shouted from the control room. "The Daedalus has docked on the south pier. They are heavily damaged and are beaming some of their crew down here."

"Sam, there are still our people on the mainland." John said. "How long do we have?"

"Maybe forty minutes."

"We need to take the jumpers and at least try to get the people back here." John looked her in the eyes. "We don't leave people behind, remember?"

"It's about twenty minutes to the mainland. You have to find them quickly. It's going to be tough."

"Caldwell, can you beam me my jumper pilots straight to the jumper bay?"

"_You got it Sheppard!"_

Sheppard nodded to Sam and run straight back to the jumper bay. "Remember, guys" he instructed his squadron on his way, a little breathless "cloak the second you get into the air and shut down anything not vital so that we can get to the mainland ASAP. Let's get our people back."

"Ma'am!" Shouted Chuck when John's team was already in the air. "There is another hyperspace window forming and it's a huge one, bigger than the last one!"

_**A/N:**_

_Have a nice cliffhanger Buahahaha…_


	13. Chapter 13 The fight

A/N: Hi everyone. I want to apologise for my tardiness in posting. Here is new chapter, unbetaed, I decided to wait for the full beta before reposting unbetaed chapters but it will eventually happen. I will post the rest of the chapters quite soon, I promise. I hope you like it and have a good time.

**The fight**

"John" Sam immediately tapped her earpiece to get to the pilots, praying that the cloak would not interfere. "You need to get yourselves back. We'll not gonna hold long, I need you all alive here!"

"No!" Said Chuck looking to Amelia, who seemed as shocked as himself. "It's a familiar ship."

"What?" Asked Sam.

"Atlantis is relieved…" the technician murmured. Then he pointed to the dot representing the object on the screen. "It's moving towards the Hive ships like it was taking fire in our stead!"

"_It's Borealis, Sam"_ She heard Steven say. _"We can see it and it's the warship that saved us! We need to help it!"_

"John!" Sam shouted. "Get your squadron back here and help with the darts. They will launch them very soon!"

"You heard the boss, kids!" Sam heard John's voice. "We're fighting after all. We may still have a chance at this stunt, so get your birds in formation and prepare for fight."

"Okay, people" Steven Caldwell said standing up and gesturing for everyone to move. "I need only few people to help me get up in the air and launch missiles. Everyone else get beamed down to the city now!"

"What?" Asked Marks.

"No way, sir." Said Meyers from her station with a smile. "We're staying right here." She exchanged knowing glances with Marks and they continued on their launching responsibilities. "And" she added with a smirk "most of the crew heard you it's Borealis. They want to fight as well. So you have the whole compliment of F-302s launching now and we're ready to assist the Ancient vessel."

Steven smiled. He reminded himself that he handpicked every single one of his crew and they were through some pretty bad crises' together. They were family and Borealis seemed to be one as well now after she saved their lives.

"Okay" he said "get us in formation with Borealis and get the birds to coordinate with Sheppard. Sam, 'r you there?"

"Yes, Steven, looks like this is going to be a lot of fun very soon." She said with a strained voice.

"_Sam?"_ Carter heard a voice in her ear she missed for the most of the situation.

"Daniel. Thank God, I thought something happened to you." She said. "Where are you?"

"_I'm in one of the living areas."_ He answered. _"I was helping the civilians in their evacuation but one of the wraith guns must have somehow gotten through the shield and all the paths near are damaged. We can't get through right now."_

"We're worried that the Hive ships will launch darts any second." She informed. "Can you find a place to hide?"

"_I can seal the door, McKay taught me that at the very beginning, and we can stay together, but we don't have any guns, so…"_

"Stay put, but retreat to a room you can defend." She advised.

"I got you, doctor Jackson!" Shouted Amelia from her workstation. "You should be two corridors from the west pier storage. Go towards the transporter "

"_And that may interest me because?"_ Daniel asked but Sam heard him walking so he just assumed he should listen to the technician.

"There should be a crate of weapons from Daedalus' repairs." Amelia smiled. "P-90s and a lot of ammo."

"_Good to know."_

"You've got to sit tight until we're ready to get you back. I'm sorry, Daniel."

"_It's okay, I've some people here who can held the weapon, we'll be okay."_ Daniel said and suddenly they lost contact.

"What now?" Sam looked at Amelia.

"Looks like comm. in that section just died."

"Damnit!" Sam growled. "But Daniel knows what to do. He will be fine."

John accounted for all his pilots on the screen and was just about to tell them to intercept all the darts at any cost but something in the corner of his display caught his attention.

"_This is Lutthan, commander of…"_ The voice in John's jumper tried to say before John interrupted seeing the symbols on the display.

"You're flying jumpers! You're the squadron of the Ancients in jumpers!" He exclaimed seeing as they got in formation in front of his people. All still cloaked but recognized by another jumpers. "That's the first."

"_Good to hear you approve, Sheppard."_

"You know my name?"

"_We've got connection to the database from the City in our machines."_ Declared Lutthan. _"Now, Sheppard, will your pilots fly in formation with us?"_ John could have sworn that his Ancient counterpart was smiling.

"What do you propose?"

"_Our 'jumpers' have been modified to have a shield as well as cloak. The drones can fly to their destination round a second Lantian ship-"_

"Okay, kids" Sheppard interrupted seeing where this was going. "Let's form up with our friends. You go and hide behind them and fire freely at Lutthan's command."

"_We certainly think alike…"_ commented Lutthan.

"_We're all fighter pilots"_ interrupted another voice through the comm. _"Is there a place for some more birds?"_

"It's nice to know you've joined us, Mitchell." John said with a smile. "Just when I thought there was no variety in this party."

When the Wraith darts started in their direction and all the jumpers decloaked it was a sight worth seeing, John thought. Jumpers from Atlantis, battleworn and repaired several times over floated in space hiding behind thirty white jumpers that looked brand new and were hidden behind shining blue shield. Then there was a squadron of ten F-302s scattered among jumpers. All those pilots were going to fly and fight together for Atlantis. A truly remarkable sight.

"Lutthan, you've got the lead." John said. "Just remember we need commands in English, not all of us will understand if you start shouting in Ancient. By the way" Sheppard inquired, "can I call you 'Lu'?"

"_No."_ Declared Lutthan but he, as well as all the other people hearing the exchange started laughing.

Daedalus lined up with the Borealis on the sky waiting for the onslaught to restart.

"_Colonel Caldwell_" Steven heard a familiar female voice over the comm. _"nice of you to join us but it's not the place for a barely operational ship. There is nothing wise in endangering your crew."_

"_We didn't want to miss the party, ma'am_." Declared Novak from her station in the engine room which caused the rest of the crew to smirk_. "We're not gonna let you fight for Atlantis alone."_

"Well said." Commented Caldwell. "We know our limits, but you can trust, we have your back, Borealis."

"_You ready?"_ Asked Maia. _"Incoming!"_

"Brace for impact!" Shouted Caldwell. "Weapons free!"

From her spot on the balcony the battle looked almost beautiful. And when Jack launched the drones from the city to aid the defensive the sky started to shine with explosions. Then the flow from the City stopped.

"_SAM!"_ she heard O'Neill's voice in her earpiece.

"What is it?" Sam asked running towards the control centre feeling something bad looming over them.

"We're out of drones!" Shouted McKay from his place. "And the ZPM is going to be depleted within a minute."

"_Oh for cryin' out loud! Not now!"_ Cursed Jack.

"How is that possible?" Sam asked. "I thought we had some more time."

"We've got darts crushing themselves into the shield… with small nuclear devices…" Rodney whispered. "This are suicide runs with a sole purpose to weaken our shield. It was ZedPMs last breath and they seem to know that."

"_Can we do anything?"_ Asked Jack but didn't get an answer. _"Then I'm heading back. Sam, get the security teams, we'll need to take care of Wraith in the City. And get the civilians out of the way!"_

Sam was in the process of calling all the military personnel waving at Susan Weir to speed up the evacuation when Chuck caught her arm.

"What?"

"Two small groups just beamed into the city."

"What now!" Sam demanded. Then the lights flickered for a moment and some small nukes managed to hit the city but just after that it seemed like every wall around them electrified, some of them sent sparks and Rodney was beaming like a kid in the candy store. "McKay!"

"We'vo got three full ZedPMs and …" Rodney tapped on his keyboard and clicked his earpiece. "General, head back to the chair!"

"_What?"_ O'Neill asked.

"You should have the full arsenal of drones now!"

"How?" Sam asked the beaming scientist.

"Now is not the time!" Shouted Teyla who rematerialized from the beam in the centre of the gateroom. "There are Wraith in the City."

"Good to see you all right, Teyla."

"We've been picked up by the Borealis. They transported a lot of their own people with nice weapons into the city to help but they couldn't spare much. We need to go now."

"The security teams are on their way already. Go." Said Sam nodding to Ronon with a smile.

"The Ancients!" Exclaimed Amelia.

"What?"

"The groups beamed into the City… they were Ancients that restored our power and restocked our drone supply!" She said. "That must be it!"

There was a sudden stop in bombardment of the city and all the people evacuating from the City seemed to stop and think it was over. Susan Weir seemed to be overwhelmed but then Cassandra came out from one of the corridors. She started to channel the opposite side of the crowd and that additional help allowed the older woman to regroup her strength and the column moved again. Sam watched the whole scene with tears in her eyes and whishing John was there. It was all going so fluently and orderly she almost couldn't believe it.

Meanwhile she looked on the screen from time to time and when Rodney announced that one of the Hive ships had been destroyed she couldn't help feeling proud of every single person from Atlantis. She knew John, Cameron and all the humans fought bravely and effectively. She even heard Lutthan compliment them on their accuracy.

Then there was a series of explosions and three more dots symbolizing Hives went dark. The last explosion however made her shiver. It sounded like exploding docking bay on 304 ship. The memories and worry flooding her mind she heard a female voice in the open channel that has been set at the beginning.

"_Colonel Caldwell"_ it said, _"You have done what you could. Get under Atlantis' shield or you'll risk everything!"_

"_We've still got firepower, we can help."_

"_Get out of here, Caldwell!"_ The woman suddenly shouted. _"We can't protect you, you're too far."_

Sam saw the Borealis moving closer to Daedalus when Chuck announced Wraith missiles being fired.

"_You're going to get hit, beam out!"_ The woman commanded and then there was a loud noise in the channel. _"Caldwell? Answer, colonel Caldwell."_ The silence was almost too scary to bear. _"Janus, dock them and get all the life signs out of the ship. Now."_

Suddenly people were being beamed down to the gateroom. People from the Daedalus' crew. They were able to walk and looked like they were kind of used to this kind of situations.

"Marks!" Sam asked when she saw him jogging up to the control room. "What's happened? Where is the rest of the crew?"

"We were beamed out by the crew of Borealis." He stated. "If I'm right all the others were considered needing immediate attention. Colonel Caldwell took a hit from an exploding console so he is either dead or seriously injured."

"Marks?"

"It was a nuke, probably hit a sensitive spot. It was like the whole ship started exploding. No way out."

"Get yourself to the infirmary."

"I'm alright, ma'am." The young man answered. "I would rather help with damage control here."

"Get yourself to Amelia, she's coordinating all our troops."

"_Get the ship under the shield, now!"_ sounded the female voice in the comm..

"_It will be dangerously thin, Maya."_

"_We don't need it full, we just need to keep all of them out of the harm's way, Janus" _The woman didn't really sound sure of it and Sam gathered that she knew the risk very well. _"Brace for impact! Get all the guns we have! Fire at will."_

The first thing Sam noticed was that the flow of civilians in the gateroom has stopped.

"Cut the connection, colonel." Said Susan Weir coming closer. "Everyone is out."

"You're here." Sam remarked.

"I'm not leaving this city." Susan stated.

"Like mother like daughter." Chuck muttered earning a smiled from Amelia and the rest. Even McKay seemed to smile a little.

Then, just after closing the gate there was a loud solitary bang from the sky. Borealis has been hit. Then a series of smaller explosions could be heard from the above.

"They did it!" Announced Rodney. "The rest of the hives are blowing up. And looks like the joined air group took care of the darts."

Sam was never more surprised when there was a bright white beam and suddenly gateroom was filled with people in a white Alteran uniforms. There were also people from the Daedalus, some of them injured, some even unconscious, thankfully all of them seemed alive.

"Beckett!" Sam said quickly. "We need all the med team in the gateroom. We've got multiple injuries."

"_Be there in a second."_ Sam heard Carson's voice. _"Move it, people, we've got patients. Jennifer, stay here and prep the OR, there would probably be some harder cases."_

There was a Lindsay Novak running her way. The woman was sporting a probably broken arm and was seriously bruised all over. Her face looked like a mess.

"What the hell is that!" Sam asked. "Marks was under impression that you were taken care by the healers on Borealis."

"We were." Lindsey Novak answered. "Borealis was hit twice. All the crew and us were beamed down. The ship must be in a really bad shape. Probably more so than the Daedalus itself."

"What?"

"There was a series of small explosions throughout the ship and the life support started malfunctioning. And I'm sure all the main drives are offline."

"The shields? And where is Caldwell?"

"The Shields seem to be holding. And ma'am" Novak looked her in the eye "Colonel Caldwell never made it to Borealis infirmary. If he's not here with the others then I fear he's dead."

"There is one more option." Said another woman struggling to go up the stairs. "There is a device on the bridge that could emit a small wave that could block his life sign from showing on the Asgard sensors."

"Mayers…" Sam said with relief.

"The console with it blew just before we were beamed up to Borealis." Mayers said. "If the device landed near the colonel and he is unconscious…"

"He might still be alive…" Sam smiled. "If the shield holds he should be safe for now."

"_Sam!"_

"What is it, Mitchell?"

"_We've got some friends to park"_ this time it was John. _"Borealis in unaccsessible as is Daedalus. We need some place."_

"Wait a second." Sam looked at the tactical situation on the screen. "You can land F-302's on the South Pier and get every Jumper you can into the bay, I don't know how many it can hold. The rest with the F-302's."

The one good thing Sam could think about was that the real fight was over. They were mostly alive and Atlantis was safe for the moment. It was not really a good day and it was, a she suspected, far from over but at least it was full of hope now.


	14. Chapter 14 Picking up the pieces

A/N:.

**Picking up the pieces**

John practically run down the stairs to the control room to find out everything he could. Lutthan followed closely behind him down the stairs.

"Sam!" John shouted when he finally saw her. "How are we?"

"Actually, quite good, if you don't consider Caldwell who is missing and two wrecks floating in the space above us whose altitude is decreasing." Sam said. "And we've got a lot of guests." Sam motioned to the Ancients gathered in the gateroom.

John seemed to look over them without a special interest until he caught a glimpse of a suspiciously familiar face.

"Chaya?" He asked and hurried down the wide stairs to meet the woman. "Chaya, is that you?"

"John?"

Sheppard was speechless when he saw the familiar woman turn towards him. Then his eyes stopped on the child she was carrying in her arms. Before he could speak something more Lutthan pushed him aside and gathered the woman in his arms.

"Are you alright?" He asked looking into her eyes and then at the kid. "Is Mercury alright?"

"We're both okay, Lu." She answered.

"He didn't let me call him that!" Whined John to Sam.

"Where is Maya?" Asked Lutthan.

"She isn't here, Lu." Answered Chaya with a sour expression. "She ordered me to get Merc and prepare for beaming down. Last I saw her she was on the bridge, with Janus." She looked at his expression. "Lu?"

"The bridge was destroyed. It's mostly gone." Lutthan answered with an immediately whitening face.

"What do you mean?" Asked John.

"Lu!" Exclaimed a young girl throwing herself into said man's arms. "I was so worried."

"Lanis," Chaya spoke to the girl, "Maya and Janus were in the destroyed part of the ship. The bridge must have been hit just before we were all beamed down here."

"What about the shield?" The girl asked.

"It appeared intact." Lutthan answered immediately. "We flew by on our way down and it seemed on full power and intact. It didn't really make much sense to me with all the bridge shattered to pieces."

John looked at the girl and thought she looked somewhat familiar. Then he remembered that Larrin spoke of her sister and it hit him. It must have been the fifteen year old officer she spoke about. It looked like the CAG of Borealis deferred to her in technical matters. She in turn looked like she knew just about everything about the ship.

"The Daedalus!" Lanis whispered suddenly. "The shields were extended to encompass the Daedalus!"

"Continue." Said Lutthan seeming much more calm than Chaya who was clutching the child tightly by now.

"We needed to extend the shield but it was not calibrated to do just that. It must have changed from shell like to something more like a protective cloak…" Lanis started to do something strange with her hands by now. John guessed that it was her unique tick. "When the blast hit it must have lost it's designed shape for a moment. It might have impacted the front window itself. If the front was shattered…"

"They may both still be alive." Decided Lutthan. "We need to get there immediately."

"What about the life support on your bridge?" Sam asked. "Is it functioning?"

"It should be" answered Lanis. "With the shield still on the shattered front panel doesn't mean decompression. But we can't get there. Out beams were compromised, just like our recall devices."

"We can fly there in the jumpers." Proposed John. "Get into the bridge from outside the shattered panel."

"Wouldn't work." Lanis said. "Only the bay doors have been calibrated to accommodate incoming. We didn't have time to calibrate everything in slightest detail. If you try to access the front panel from outside you can compromise the entire thing."

"And the bays looked inaccessible." Lutthan said worried again.

"_Oh… my head…"_ Sam and John heard a groan in their headsets.

"Steven?" Sam exclaimed happily.

"_Sam?" _

"Are you all right?"

"_Yeah, just sore and my head…"_ He growled. _"How is the situation?"_

"Atlantis is safe." John said. "Borealis saved all our asses. Your crew is mostly safe here in the City with us. As is the crew of Borealis."

"_I don't understand. Might have something to do with having a concussion though…"_ The sound seemed to indicate colonel was getting from under a piece of debris. _"So, what happened when I was out?"_

"Borealis was nearly destroyed." Sam said matter-of-factly. "We think there are two of its crew still trapped on the bridge."

"_Say again?"_

"We don't have any way of getting there."

"Caldwell, do you still have beaming capability?" John suddenly asked.

"_I think so…"_ Caldwell said unsurely. _"Yeah, seems beaming is one of the very few systems that still work."_

"Lorne, I need you in the gateroom ASAP." Said John. "Caldwell, what do you need to beam two people out of Borealis?"

"_Transmitters would be good, but the sensors for them are probably damaged or inaccessible right now."_

"If you get the person close then it should be possible to get them through their lifesign." Said Lindsey Novak from her place in the crowd. "We started to introduce sensors close to those of Asgard design. They were not yet tested but…"

"Has to be enough." Concluded John. He turned to Chaya. "I will need some explanations, but not now."

"Why don't you follow Amelia" Sam said seeing the woman appear beside her "to one of our guest quarters. I don't know if we have enough of them prepared to accommodate all of you comfortably, but-"

"Some of you are in need of medical care" said Amelia "and doctor Beckett is on his way. As soon as he clears the rest of you I will lead you to some temporary accommodations."

Seeing that Carson was just entering the gateroom with his med teams Sam decided it was all going to play out rather calmly after all.

"Caldwell, I will need you to beam me and Lorne to the bridge of Borealis." John said seeing Lorne entering the room and disposing of his guns. "Can you do that? The ancients are positive that the Life support is still on."

"_You ready now?"_ Caldwell asked.

"Can I assist in any way?" Lutthan asked.

"You and Mitchell just keep all the pilots ready for any unforeseeable things." John said. "We'll do what we can. Caldwell, we're ready."

Lorne looked at John questioningly just before the beam engulfed them both.

When they appeared on Borealis' bridge the level of destruction looked much worse than what they both expected. The front, usually transparent panel was totally shattered and pieces of it were scattered all around the bridge covering almost every piece of the floor. It was hard even to move in that mess. John motioned for Lorne to sit in the control chair that was, as usual in the Ancient warships, situated in the middle on a slightly higher level to ensure clear view of all the screens and the front panel as well. Lorne moved through the debris and cleared the seat.

"She feels very damaged." Evan informed fingering the pads. "But she can fly. I wouldn't stake my head on any maneuvres."

"Can you land her on a nearest pier?" John asked pulling the lantian life signs detector out of his pocket. "Would be a shame if we can't save her. Her and the Daedalus as well."

"I'll try." Lorne winced in concentration. "But it would not be a pleasant ride down there."

"Just get her down." John said. "You're the best pilot for this ships and the piers are okay to be smashed a little. Just try not to destroy the City."

Then John saw it. One of the life signs, the stronger one, moved just a little. John noticed a piece of white cloth from under a big glass shard. Getting the man out proved much easier than he anticipated. His state was also much better than John feared it would be. He managed to get to his feet with very little help.

"Are you okay?" John asked looking the man in the eyes. "Can you stand on your own?"

"I think so…" the Ancient man suddenly looked around like looking for something. "Maya… Maya!" He started to sort through the shards of the glass-like material. "Maya!"

"Easy, easy." John steadied him. "We're gonna find her and get her to a doctor just, you too,by the way. Just calm down. What happened?" John asked looking at his life signs detector to locate the other person.

"The shield gave way with the last blast from the exploding Hive. It shattered the front window. Last thing I saw was a big part impacting Maya."

"Here" John said moving a bunch of smaller pieces to reveal a bloody mass on the floor. "She's still alive."

The man tried to help John uncover Maya further but his knees gave way and he slumped to the floor. Despite what he wanted John to believe he was seriously injured and unfit to help in any way right now. John decided to keep his attention to the woman who, contrary to the man, was very much unconscious and very much still bleeding. He could see her soaked previously white tunic torn in multiple places and with patches of blood already starting to dry as well as many new stains. He reached under the body to pick her up and winced. She was wholly covered in tiny shards of the glass with several larger poking through the outfit. John ignored the pricking sensation in his palms knowing that every move could damage her further in this state. After picking her up a little he discovered a large pool of blood under her and cursed.

"Beckett, I'll need you to be in the infirmary, probably in the OR, ASAP!"

"_Understood, colonel, just get him here, we'll do the rest."_ Came stoic response of the Scottish doctor. _"And the other patient?"_

"A little better but it would probably be best to have Keller in the second OR ready." John replied trying to clean up Maya's face a little but it proved to be as bad as the rest of the body with long hair sticky from all the blood obscuring the view. He managed to get a better hold on her and stand up. "Caldwell, I've got one of the Ancients with me, the second is next to me. Can you beam us down straight to the infirmary like that?"

"_I think I can do that. What about Lorne?"_

"I'll try to get us both down in the ship, colonel." Evan replied calmly although he seemed to be tiring already from trying to steer the heavily damaged giant down in one piece. "I'm in the chair, piloting."

By the time the beam engulfed them the Ancient scooted closer to John and put a hand on his arm to help with the beaming. He was pale and obviously in pain but the only thing he seemed intent about was the wellbeing of the woman John held in his arms. Maya was unmoving and John could no longer feel her breathing. He could, however feel her blood dripping from his hands and both this observations made him worry that they may have arrived too late or worse even, that there was nothing they could have done for her in the first place.

"Get them on the beds and into the OR right now!" John heard Beckett shout when they were beamed down. Then Carson saw the mess in his arms and stopped in shock. "Bloody hell."

"She was breathing when I got to her, but I don't think she still is." John informed laying her on the gurney nearest to him. "It's the one they call Maya."

"Get yourself to one of the medics with those hands, colonel, before you make it worse yourself." Beckett commanded moving after the team with Maya on the stretcher. "Let's move, people!"

When John was being cared for by one of the young medics brought to the City for further training the control room was still a very busy place. Sam was standing over Chuck looking on his screen to see how the Borealis descended.

"It's coming down much too fast." Sam said with worry. "If it continues like that he will smash into the pier and destroy it." She closed her eyes and addressed the pilot. "Lorne, can you slow down, your' going too fast."

"_Nothing here, I tried but –"_

"The engines that could help with that are probably destroyed." Lutthan said. "And there is the added weight of the Daedalus."

"No one wants to think about steering the ships into the ocean and starting to think of a way to get Caldwell out…" commented Jack leaping into the control room. "But it may be the only idea. Lutthan, will you be able to get Caldwell out with a jumper? You are much more proficient and your jumpers seem much more update…"

"_The jumpers!"_ John exclaimed into his headset. Sam have nearly forgotten that they were all still online_. "We can slow the descent-"_ John didn't even finish when Lutthan seemed to understand him and started recalling all the members of his and John's air groups to their Jumpers. _"I'll be right there."_ John concluded and there was a distinct growl beside him and curses that he ignored all the medics.

A minute later all the jumpers as well as all the F-302's were back in the air and receiving instructions from John and Lutthan alike. It seemed to be another joint operation where the chain of command seemed to be unimportant.

"What are you planning to do?" Jack asked.

"_We'll park under the Borealis and assist as another engines."_ John said _"We'll simply push up."_

"I've got an idea!" Jack said and ran in the direction he came from.

"Will you please share?" Sam asked massaging her temple.

"_The new drones are much more powerful than the old ones. And extremely nice to steer."_

Sam just shook her head and came back to observe the process of landing on the screen. The jumpers and, surprisingly, drones as well, seemed to do the trick. The descent slowed to near halt by the time the smaller ships needed to get out from under the giant. Still, the way the City shook and leaned on one side a moment later indicated that it still hit the pier with a lot of force. When the city finally leveled it was good to see Lorne appear in the gateroom exhausted but on his own feet and to hear Caldwell's voice from somewhere else than the Daedalus.

"_I'm in a jumper with Lutthan, Sam."_ He said. _"Looks like Lorne landed safely."_

The clapping and cheering from all the team in the control room and gateroom was overwhelming. They were alive and the City was safe and without too much damage.

It was almost six hours after Borealis was safely on the ground when Keller informed Sam that Janus was out of surgery and should be on his feet in less than a day, actually. It was four more to hear that Beckett has finished his work on Maya and declared she should pull through as well. By that time the whole city has been cleared and the medics finished settling comfortably every single person that needed their attention.

They were okay, was the last thing Sam thought just before she let herself fall into slumber in Jack's arms in their bedroom. Since one of the technicians that came back from Earth just ten minutes before offered to stay on duty and Richard Woolsey declared he would call her if anything needed her attention they allowed themselves this much needed rest. It wasn't the best wedding day but it certainly could have ended much worse.


	15. Chapter 15 News

A/N:

**News**

John was standing in the entry to Chaya's temporary quarters. The visit to the Ancient woman was the first thing of his agenda just after the sleep and small breakfast and he was anxiously awaiting being let in. He passed his hand over the sensor and waited until the door opened. He stepped in and was greeted by a familiar face.

"Hello, John." Chaya said weakly. "I didn't think to see you so soon."

"I…" John didn't really know what to say.

"I hope everyone of your people is safe." Chaya said moving to stand by the crib that used to be Torren's. "This was a close call." Her voice sounded strained and unsure.

"They are safe. What about your people?"

"They will be fine. Apart from Maya and Janus they needed only minor attention from your medics." Chaya said. "Do you know when I can see Maya?"

"Sam told me to get you to the observation room in an hour." John said. "Beckett will brief us all about the medical situation there." Then he looked towards the crib and only then noticed quiet fussing sounds. Then the child started crying. "Who is it, Chaya?"

"It's Mercury, Maya's son." Provided Chaya taking the child into her arms. "He's getting restless without his mother…"

Then the strangest thing happened when John came closer to examine the child for himself. Mercury turned and reached for him. John was sad when the child started wailing even more but Chaya seemed just tired.

"Can you hold him for a moment?" She asked.

"I-"

John was not given any time to consider his answer when the woman put the child into his arms. Surprisingly after a short while boy stopped crying and smiled contently. Chaya, who was retrieving a bottle from a bag looked at them both with wonder.

"Even Jinto can't calm him down so fully and so quickly" she wondered. "It's just like he acts for his mother…"

"I can't believe this kid is living with you on a battleship." Stated John swaying lightly and looking into a smiling face of this unusual child. "I wouldn't believe any father would agree to his kid being put in constant jeopardy."

"He has no father." Chaya said sadly. "I mean we don't know him." She continued seeing John's questioning expression. "When Maya was descended and we joined her she had no memories of her life from before. We were working on getting the ship to this galaxy and then we were starting to fight the Wraith and one day we were just worried about her health. Kenosos determined she was pregnant. And from what we gathered the child was not conceived during the time after descention."

"Can ascended beings…?" John almost chocked.

"No." Chaya said surely. "There is no body. We think she was pregnant when she lost her natural body and that's why descending her, bringing her back to her physical body, basically creating it from energy, was so difficult and taxing. There were two lives to bring back."

"And since she lost her memories…"

"She was not able to think even about possible fathers." Chaya concluded. "But there were feelings, John. Feelings we all envied her. Feelings of love and trust and being loved. She felt them thinking of her child. She knew she was deeply loved and protected when Merc was conceived."

"She could really do that?" John was amazed.

"It is possible but we don't know how, it only happens with feelings woven very deeply into the heart. It's still a mystery."

John was surprised how those ancients seemed different from all the previously met ones. He was holding in his arms a child of a human woman who, despite being vulnerable, was accepted as a leader and followed without a word and cared for deeply. The child himself was treating him with a lot of friendliness and trust, unlike most kids John knew. He looked and stood patiently when Chaya fed the baby and was suddenly overcome with a warm feeling of closeness and need to protect. Out of his musings got him the chime from the door and he was surprised when Jinto entered through the open door. The young man seemed accustomed to the kid and took Mercury from John's arms.

"Wow" he said looking how Merc seemed to clutch to John. "He really likes you, colonel…"

"This is…" John was at loss of words "strange."

"It is." Confirmed Chaya. Then she looked at a clock that was on the wall. "I think we should be getting to the infirmary now. I was told we will be able to see Maya very soon."

John led the way after he looked once more on the little boy in Jinto's arms. It was strange to leave him there. Maybe it felt that way because John still thought of the Athosian like a boy he met six years ago. Yes, decided John, it was just that, it had nothing to do with a child that felt so good in his arms.

When they arrived in the infirmary they were told to get to the observation room instead of the usual IC unit where most of the severely injured patients were usually kept. On the balcony there was a small gathering already looking down the window. John approached Teyla first.

"Do you know what is happening?" he asked.

"No." She answered. "Sam asked me to come and I think it was the same with Rodney, Ronon and Mrs Weir also. I think she wants to tell us something."

"Any idea what would that be?"

"No." Teyla said looking to the front to where Sam and Jack stood. "But I think they want Beckett to be there. I think he knows something."

John neared the glass window and looked down on the woman on the bed. She looked really fragile now with the tube down her throat and a bandage covering most of her face. It was hard to deduce this was the one that came here in a battleship and blasted most of the wraith fleet from the sky. One that was able to steer all the drones and weapons with such a deadly precision. One that decided to get into such an unfair fight. And then it dawned on him that this woman was also a mother who gave birth not long ago and who must have been really delicate with a newborn baby.

"Where is she?" Janus asked as soon as he entered the room. Someone must have shown him the direction because he was beside John in a moment. "How is she? Can we go there?"

"Janus, calm down." Chaya said putting a hand on his arm. "When she is well enough to see us we'll go there. We have to trust doctor Beckett."

Then they all heard the worst sound they could under the circumstances. The long, continous beep coming from the heart monitor.

John's heart almost stopped also. This couldn't end like that. She had to live to see her victory, or for her child at least.

Carson was by her side almost instantly with his team and they managed to start Maya's heart within seconds. Then Beckett made his way to the observation room above.

"Carson, what happened?" Sam asked impatiently. "I thought you said she was stable!"

"Her heart suffered some bruising from the shards and she lost a lot of blood in the process." He explained. "And she was not in the best condition before the battle I would say. She needs a lot of attention, which we provide."

"Why aren't our healers down there?" Janus asked. "They would be able to help her."

"I would get them there as soon as they're all fit for that. They're not right now." Beckett snapped. "We do everything we can and we'll save her, I assure you, lad."

"Carson…" Sam probed.

"All the personnel from the Daedalus are down in the infirmary or in the temporary living quarters. There are no seriously injured and most of them are just fine. Most of the Lantians were beamed down before there was a chance to get injured so they were assigned quarters as well and those injured were given separate space in the infirmary to be comfortable. There are a lot of healers who overtaxed themselves so they rest under my staff's supervision and we think they will be fine in two to three days maximum." Said Beckett with a small smile. "Actually, Janus and Maya were the only ones needing anything more than some stitching and Janus, as you can see is on his feet right now. I've put Maya under a medical coma to help her heal and I plan to wake her sometime next week after she can breathe on her own without a problem."

"What about her identity? How many people saw her face and recognized her?" Jack asked pinching his nose. "And how many of them can we trust to keep a secret?"

"Basically, Jack is asking how long do we expect this to go without spreading?" Sam clarified.

"I would say it is already being spread and fast." Said Beckett apologetically. "I couldn't exactly pick people to help when the mess was how it was at the time. And there was no time to ask everyone to keep it to themselves, either."

"So…"

"I would advise and official statement sooner rather than later." Finished Beckett. Then he offered. "I can talk to them" he said indicating the people in the room that were joined by some more of the senior and semi-senior staff "but there are people that should have some privacy for this. And you know who I mean."

"Susan, would you like to go for a walk?" Asked Jack and nodded on John looking into Sam's eyes. "I need to talk with you about something."

"John" Sam motioned leading John out.

"Carson?" Teyla asked after the two couples left. "What is it all about?"

"I'm afraid we were kept in the dark about a friend, love, for a nice couple of weeks." Carson said sitting down on a chair standing near. "I think you should better sit down for this. I know I needed after I realized."

"Sam, where are we going?" John asked after following the woman out of the room. "And what is it all about?"

"The balcony outside the control room would probably be best." Carter murmured. "You need to know some things and I would prefer you don't get to know with all those people present."

"Are the people in the observation room going to knew all the stuff?"

"Most of it, what they really need." Carter stopped for a moment. "And we need them to break the news to their departments the best way they know before all the Expedition finds out from the rumor mill."

Sam stepped into the balcony and sat looked on the city from the almost best spot there was. Then she started pacing trying to get things sorted right in her head to pass them onto John properly.

"Can you lock the door?" She asked. "I wouldn't want anyone to interrupt or hear what I have to say before you had time to digest it…"

"You worry me." John said after passing his hand properly over the sensor near the door. "You sound like someone is dying."

"Quite the contrary." Sam laughed. "Just promise me you'll not strangle me until I could say everything."

"Just get to it…" John shivered sensing Sam's nervousness.

"Do you remember the day when Steven returned with a damaged Daedalus? The one after he encountered Borealis for the first time?"

"Hard to forget." John looked closer at Sam. "I remember feeling there was something Caldwell told you but left out for the rest of the senior staff."

"And you felt right." Sam said sitting down on one of the benches. "Steven was persistent and contrary to what he told us on the official meeting, he actually got to talk to Maya then."

"So he knew her from then. Nothing to kill about." He declared. "I've been kept in the dark about things before. Not nice, but sometimes nothing I can do about."

"John, just listen to me, please."

"Sorry."

"Caldwell brought back two samples of hair for us to compare one with our database and the second with some samples from Atlantis."

"You mean there is a connection between our people here and Maya?"

"It's worse. Steven recognized Maya. John…" Sam warned him when he wanted to say something. "Steven recognized Maya and deduced she might have been lying about her child. I mean with what he thought her identity to be and the fact he'd never seen the woman pregnant he wanted to check if the kid was really hers. The only other member of the senior staff who would have been told about it would probably be you but because of the supposed identity he decided to leave you out of this discussion. And I supported his decision. After all the tests came back Jack thought it would be better not to tell you at all until we thought of some way to make the situation easier. You can see we were faced with a fact much sooner than we hoped." Sam laughed sadly.

"What about the tests?"

"The DNA tests then confirmed the personality of Maya and my own fears of the child, especially his father. Beckett redid them yesterday just after finishing with the operation. They are conclusive. This time they are in the mainframe so everyone can access them as well as many of the medical staff saw Maya's face so this information is probably already floating around."

"Will you stop beating around the bush and just tell me who she is?"

"John, Maya is in fact Elizabeth Weir."

"'Lis'beth?"

"Yes." Sam looked him deep in the eye and prepared herself for the real bombshell she had to drop on him. "The tests were also conclusive regarding Mercury, Maya's son. He's your child, John. You're a father of Elizabeth Weir's child."

Susan Weir was pacing nervously in the room inhabited once by her daughter. She stopped from time to time to look at O'Neill and started back again.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you something sooner, that we didn't prepare you for this revelation, but…" started Jack after some time.

"You're telling me my daughter is still alive and that she has a son?"

"Yes."

"And she is in the infirmary right now fighting for her life?"

"According to Beckett she will be all right. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but…"

"Jack, you came to me and handed me a flag despite her not being military and a sign I didn't understand back then that I was not to tell anyone about just to keep." Susan looked at him with teary eyes. "There was a memorial service because you said you knew she was not coming back, that she was officially declared DIA or something like that…"

"KIA" Corrected O'Neill. "It's quite hard to wrap your head about but Daniel went through that twice. He is probably more qualified to tell you anything about the process. The thing is, she doesn't remember a thing from her old life. The only memories she has right now aren't going back further than her reappearance."

"So she wouldn't remember me…"

"Don't give up." Jack came closer and hugged her lightly. "When we found Daniel he didn't know us. The memories came back gradually. It was thanks to familiar people and places that he regained his old self. I believe it can be the same with Elizabeth. You need to be with her, to help her through this and she will surely start remembering things one by one in a short time. Just don't get discouraged, because this will probably take time."

"What about Mercury's father?" Susan suddenly asked. "Do we know who he is?"

John left the balcony almost absentmindedly and made his way to room Chaya occupied with Mercury. He was vaguely aware of Sam coming with him, then explaining to Jinto and then to Chaya why he held the child and why from now on he was to be his guardian. All this time he couldn't take his eyes off the child. Child he made with Elizabeth. Elizabeth, who was now laying in the observation room under Beckett's care, who was alive and was going to be well, if Carson was to be believed. He was going to take care of his woman and his child from now on. He was not going to let them slip out of his grasp again.


	16. Chapter 16 Healing

A/N:

**Healing**

The senior staff meetings have been different for the last week. John was given a month of vacation to get his affairs under control again and his feelings sorted out. He was spending most of his time in Elizabeth's old quarters making them suitable to move there Elizabeth first thing after Beckett could release her and preparing them for the little occupant he was not parting with. Fortunately Mrs Weir have taken upon herself to keep an eye on her grandson so Sam wasn't worried for the child and managed to calm down Chaya who felt overprotective of Mercury.

Janus and Steven were a new addition to the meetings lately because of the need to get at least one of the ships repaired as soon as possible and to get the new perimeter around the Lantia established. Steven's crew was more than happy to help out with the repairs and Borealis crew, under, surprisingly for some, Lanis's supervision as it turned out was even happier and ready to work with Earth engineers. Jack couldn't get used to this kind of cooperation since his last meeting with the Ancients turned out exactly opposite. Now it was all working and he couldn't help but think it was all Elizabeth's doing to integrate humans and Lantians to work side by side for the common purpose.

Rodney was working with Janus specifically on increasing the efficiency of all the systems and since Sam was an expert on Asgard technology she was helping a lot with the repairs of those components on the Borealis. Meanwhile Zelenka with a small team was ascertaining all the damage to the Daedalus and the extent of the repairs that needed to be done to possibly get the ship back in the air or, in the worst case, taking inventory of the things that could be salvaged from the ship if it proved beyond any repair.

Woolsey himself offered to come back to Earth to get the situation under control from that end since he was the most accustomed to the IOA and its tricks and quirks. He felt confident to keep all the Earth officials from making more mess than necessary in this case.

All this left Lorne in charge of military and Jack taking care of all the civilians in the City. It was a tedious task of finishing all the preparations for setting up schools and other child care facilities, okeying enough space for the recreational areas for the whole planned final number of inhabitants. It had to do with receiving all the complaints about all sorts of problems, imaginary or not. It was harder because Susan Weir, who used to help him in caring for the civvies, just abandoned him in the task and he could hardly blame her for spending half her day with her still unconscious daughter and the other with her newly discovered grandson and his father.

"So, how is everything in the City?" Sam asked looking at Lorne.

"I would have told you if you've came back to our room tonight…" Jack commented with a bad mood. "Or any night in the last four."

"Jack, I told you they need someone with a good knowledge of Asgard tech to help on Borealis."

"Maybe it would be better if you dealt with it in private." Teyla tactfully suggested. "We should rather deal with the city business as soon as possible."

"Agreed." Said Lorne. Then continued. "All the preparations are done and we are ready to start two kindergarten groups as well as two grades of school that would be needed for the next batch of civilians. We've cleared another twenty five sets of living rooms, they are being furnished as we speak and we have another twenty planned for next week. It's going to be over eighty apartments ready to inhabit by next week when the civilians are scheduled to arrive."

"Good." Sam said pinching the bridge of her nose. "Any word from Richard Woolsey?"

"Mister Woolsey dialed in yesterday" said Teyla "to inform us that he will be coming back in two days with important news and to say that we're going to have some problems but the situation is mostly under control. He would need to have a spokesman of the Lantians elected before his arrival so that there can be an official negotiation."

"Has anyone heard from Beckett?" Asked Rodney suddenly. "Not that I'm not interested in all the fine political babble but…"

"He wanted us all to be there today at 1600 when he wakes Elizabeth up." Said Jack. "I informed Sheppard and Susan Weir. We should all be there."

"Can we be in the room?" Teyla asked.

"No, only Chaya and Janus will be allowed down there." Said O'Neill. "Knowing how Daniel was freaked by us when he was still out of his memories it's probably the best decision."

"Speaking of Daniel, has anyone seen him lately?" Sam asked looking more tired than Jack has anticipated. "He may be able to help Mrs Weir and Elizabeth get through this all."

"He found himself some ancient woman who was eager to talk to him about all the superstitious beliefs he found out about just before the Wraith attack, so…"

"Is she pretty?" Sam joked.

"Don't worry, Vala's with them." Jack countered quickly. "so, what's the game plan for today?"

"I propose we meet in the observation room at 1530 and until then go back to our respective jobs." Carter saw everyone nod and concluded the meeting leading the way out of her office.

Jack wanted to talk to her but didn't manage to catch her before she entered the transporter with Janus and moved to another part of the city. They were more apart than together nowadays and that was the more infuriating the more nights she used to spend on Borealis repairing the ship. He was angry at her before the meeting but now, after seeing her appearance he understood she was not doing it for her own amusement. It was in fact a very hard work she did hence her pale complexion and tired voice and more than anything her tired eyes. She needed a break and although he was not technically her husband yet he was going to exercise authority and get her to rest before she made herself ill. This afternoon after the visit in the infirmary.

Carson supposed everyone in the observation room was exactly as nervous as he was. Standing over all the tubes going in and out of Elizabeth and having to make a decision that could well harm her was pretty unnerving. All the vitals were good and he finally had Janus and Chaya by her sides to calm her down if necessary. He administered the drug and looked up to assure the spectators that this could take a moment before they could see any effects.

After five minutes Chaya noticed that Elizabeth started moving her fingers a bit and another seven brought them Elizabeth wanting to clutch at the bandages on her face. The heart monitor started beeping furiously. Chaya started saying something in ancient when Janus pun a firm hand on Elizabeth's arms to stop her from tearing on the dressing.

"Mercury!" Elizabeth suddenly whispered. "Where is Mercury?"

"He's fine, Maya, he's fine." Assured her Chaya. "When you're well enough I'll bring him."

"I want to hold him now." Stated Elizabeth. "I want to have him with me now!"

"Not now, love." Said calmly Carson. "If you're well enough we can do something with your face tomorrow morning and then get you your son. He is perfectly healthy by the way. Don't worry."

"What about my eyes?" She asked quietly.

"We will see tomorrow. There are two healers who are prepared to assist, so it should be all right with your eyes." Declared Beckett. "Of course nothing is certain but you should be positive."

"Janus?" Elizabeth moved her arm to find him.

"I'm here, Maya." The ancient said. "What is it?"

"What about the crew?" She asked. "What about the ship?"

"You managed to beam everyone down before the final blast hit us but the ship was very badly damaged." Janus said sadly. "It was close to beyond repair, but we managed to save everyone and there are repairs going now and it will be fit to fight in less than a week."

"Less than a week? How long was I out?" Maya's voice sounded progressively more tired.

"Almost a week, love." Informed Carson administering another drug into her IV. "But that doesn't mean you don't need to sleep. So sleep now and we will see your pretty eyes tomorrow."

"She will be all right." Declared Beckett after he left Elizabeth in capable hands of his nurses and joined all the people in the observation room. "All her responses seem fine and her mind seems just like I remember it. I think she was energetic like before and all this are good signs."

"What about her eyes?" John asked worriedly. "You said before that they are damaged."

"I've talked with two of the healers that are fine and they should be able to heal all the damage to her face and eyes."

"When can we see her?" Asked Teyla.

"I will allow Mrs Weir tomorrow, with Mercury and then if she wants to see the rest of you I will allow it tomorrow afternoon."

When Elizabeth awakened the next day she was watched closely by all the people that were there yesterday and with face covered not longer by bandages but by familiar hands of Kenosos. He was working his magic on her and she felt safe. Despite her discomfort she stayed still to allow the healing process. When the man finished she managed to open her eyes but suddenly panicked.

"Stay still, love." She heard now familiar voice of the man who greeted her before. "Your eyes may be healed but you still need to take it easy. Your sight will come back slowly. Let them adjust with your eyelids closed. Meanwhile there is someone who wants to see you."

John came closer and handed Mercury into Elizabeth's hands carefully watching how her face beamed the second she felt her child close. His kid also seemed to regain some of his happiness. Elizabeth started whispering something in Ancient into the child's ears, probably from habit.

"Try opening your eyes now, love."

John watched as she opened her eyes and started looking around. He was glad he insisted he would be the one to hand Merc into her arms and he was glad Mrs Weir supported his claims. This was something he craved for years now, to see her eyes again.

"The vision is blurry" Elizabeth said calmly. "Will it stay that way?"

"I don't think so." Beckett said examining her eyes again. "You just need to give them some time. Some things should not be rushed."

Elizabeth seemed in much better shape today, both physically and emotionally. She was not afraid and looked like she thought through every decision and text. It was encouraging for everyone to see her getting better.

"Who are you?" Elizabeth's question surprised John. "And why Merc seems to like you so much?"

He knew that she didn't remember anything, including him. But now he found out that knowing and actually experiencing it were two different sensations.

"It's John Sheppard, lass" supplied Carson "military leader of Atlantis."

"And?" Elizabeth must have sensed there was something more Carson left out of the conversation.

"It's neither the time nor the place." Carson tried to cover the facts. He seemed to succeed. "You need your rest now. Is there anyone you'd want to speak to in the evening?"

"Janus and Chaya, Lanis, Lutthan…" Elizabeth started, but Beckett didn't let her finish.

"I'm afraid I haven't made myself clear." Intruded Carson. "I will let some people in but today I still want you to rest. I will release you to an already prepared room tomorrow if you're fit for it. But only then. And even when I release you I will want you to keep visitors to a minimum. Do you understand, love?"

"I will submit." Elizabeth declared with a smile and Carson noticed she was looking right into his eyes.

John held Mercury about an hour later when Elizabeth was given a light meal to eat and when Beckett examined her to be sure she was healing properly. Then there was a short session with Kenosos to recover some more health and then some time for feeding Mercury. Time went very fast and before Sheppard noticed it was evening and he took his son back to child's grandmother for the night leaving Elizabeth with Janus and Lanis deeply in talk about Borealis' repairs.

The next morning he got a signal from Carson that Elizabeth would be released from the infirmary around ten and that her room needed to be ready and prepared by that time and that someone needed to take care of her getting into her quarters. Good old Beckett, overprotective as always.

He insisted on Elizabeth travelling in a wheelchair, off the more crowded trails to shield her from unwanted attention of the expedition members. They planned to keep her in the room at least until they knew if any of her memories will be coming back. Thankfully she didn't resist Beckett's idea under the condition that she was able to hold Merc the entire way. Despite what she declared she was more than tired. The injuries have taken their toll and Carson wanted to ease her back into full health incrementally to avoid sudden changes in physiology. At the same time it was giving her more time to become acquainted with the new situation they were all placed in.

"So" started Jack sitting with Sam and Woolsey in the glass office. "What are we going to face, Richard?"

"Nothing bad."

"Anything specific?" Sam asked.

"I told them the Ancients came to reclaim the City."

"What?" Asked Jack incredously. "You told them what?"

"That the Lantians came and are demanding to have a full control of their City returned to them immediately." Replied Richard. "I need one of them, the representative, to speak on their behalf in that tone with the IOA representative tomorrow. Has this Janus you mentioned been prepared?"

"Elizabeth chose another one for the task." Sam informed. "His name is Lutthan and he is a commander of a jumper squadron on Borealis."

"Is a pilot a good choice?" Woolsey was openly sceptical about the idea.

"Oh he is" Sam said with a small smile. "He will be hard in negotiations, you should count on that."

"Good."

"Is there anything else we need to talk about today, Richard?" Jack asked preparing to stand up. "I would like to take Sam to rest now."

"No, that's all." Richard said standing up. "I will greet the representative early myself, so you can oversleep a little. You seem to need it, colonel O'Neill."

Sam and Jack, who both managed to stand up in the middle were quite uneasy about his last statement.

"She's not O'Neill, Richard… not yet anyway."

"If this attack hadn't happened she would be and we all know it." Woolsey smiled. "If you had guts enough you would be married long ago probably." He declared without a thought. Then suddenly his face turned serious. "By the way, how is doctor Weir?"

"Beckett says she will be all right, but she still hasn't even started regaining her memories." Provided Jack.

"Chaya and Janus think some of them may be blocked by the other Ascended beings or have been downright destroyed but Daniel seems to think they are just buried very deep, maybe because of a lot of them being sad or tragic or hurtful. Her mother is staying with her and John has given her back her son. She is calm and Carson was sure this would be beneficial." Sam added. "And since he is the one who knew the most about her I think he might be just right."

"I hope she lets us stay here after all this is over." Declared Richard. "And it's good she is not going to appear in the negotiations. The IOA had a field day with just a knowledge she is alive and the leader of the Borealis. They wanted to get her back for questioning."

"Not going to happen." Said Jack. "She is here as a guest and besides, she is not under our jurisdiction."

"You can tell the IOA delegate" spitted Sam "that the Borealis is nearly fully operational and in the event anyone wants to do anything to Maya the Ancients can beam her up immediately and leave forever leaving us vulnerable to the Wraith for good."

"Thank you for this." Woolsey said sounding relieved. "I didn't have any rational argument for that. And with what you just said there is no way they'll be ager to jeopardize this newfound alliance."


	17. Chapter 17 Going home

A/N:

**Going home**

Maya woke with a start. All the dreams she was experiencing were starting to make her angry and tired. It wasn't long until she felt a steadying hand on her shoulder. It has become a habit last night in the infirmary that Susan Weir, who apparently was her mother, helped her to shake the dream and go back to sleep as many times as this happened. And since all the dreams then started very nice and cosy Maya didn't resist.

"Maybe I should get you something from doctor Beckett to help you sleep without dreams?" The older woman asked. "You should be resting, not spending your night tossing and turning."

"No, it's okay, mom, I'd prefer to have them rather than wait longer for all the memories to come back." Maya said sleepily. "I have a feeling that if I refuse them access during the night they may never come back."

Maya looked at Mrs Weir and met a shocked expression of the older woman.

"What?"

"You…" Suddenly Susan had tears in her eyes. "You said to me 'mom'…"

"I… don't know why… I'm sorry…" Elizabeth felt embarrassed. "I should have watched my tongue."

"No, no… " Susan was holding her now. "It's okay, you're getting it back, at least partially. It's okay." She patted her affectionately on the back. They were both crying. "It will all get back to you. Today, tomorrow, in a month, it doesn't matter, sweetheart."

They were holding each other affectionately for some time until Susan Weir finally pulled back. Elizabeth felt chilled for a second and then it must have shown on her face, or her eyes, or it was a mother's instinct but Susan saw there was something wrong.

"It's okay, sweetheart, it's okay." She comforted her daughter. "But now you need to sleep."

This time something was different. Elizabeth allowed herself to be laid down with a head on her mother's tigh and fell asleep with the older woman's hand petting her head. This time the nightmares didn't come back. This time she dreamt of a pocket watch and stepping through the wormhole to Atlantis and hugging general O'Neill after rescuing him and being reestablished as the leader of the Atlantis expedition. This time she woke up when the sun was brightly shining through the window and the glass offered an amazing view of her city. And that was what she thought about Atlantis – "her City". She smiled and gently got up careful not to wake her mother. She looked through the window and mused about being back home again. 'Home' felt good.

She went to the closet almost without thought and pulled out an outfit that felt most familiar at the moment. She put on the clothes and left a note on the nightstand for her mother not to be worried and walked out of the room.

Everything felt different than just the day before. People were looking familiar and many of them were actually smiling to her. This was nice and made her feel warm. She actually seemed to remember names of a lot of them. She definitely knew the place now and let her feet carry her through the halls to the place they apparently travelled very much to.

She entered the control room with a smile and kept her eyes on the Stargate.

"Good morning, Chuck." She said absentmindedly leaning on the railing on the catwalk leading to the glass office. After several moments she noticed that a lot of people behind the consoles grinned like idiots. "What?"

"I guess it finally feels right…" Stated a deep voice from behind her.

"Steven…" Elizabeth stated quietly and covered her mouth fighting tears. Then she saw a woman beside him. "Sam…"

The next thing surprised them both. Elizabeth Weir ran towards them and hugged each one.

"You've got to get used to her doing that." Commented another voice from the other side.

"Jack…" Weir stated but he held his hand up before she even started advancing his direction.

"I think I got enough of my share of hugs from you, Elizabeth." He smiled. "But it's certainly nice of you to remember us again."

"We share the sentiment, ma'am" said Chuck and motioned over all the techs in the control room. "It's that greeting we were really missing for a long time." He said and then looked at Carter. "Not that we don't like your …"

"It's okay, Chuck" Sam cut him short. "I know I was a necessary evil here." Sam smiled encouragingly.

"How is your memory, anyway?" Asked Jack seriously. "How much came back? Just yesterday you still didn't know us."

"I don't know, I just went to sleep and …Frankly, it's giving me a hell of a headache."

"Go talk to Jackson" O'Neill commented snippy. "He's done it already so he may have some useful tips."

"Where is Daniel anyway?" Elizabeth asked. "I don't remember seeing him any time since we saved each other's asses."

"He was there when you were unconscious but first moment we knew you were going to be okay he couldn't help himself…"

"Let me guess, Jack. The ancient database of all the mystery un-ancient-like legends?" She observed Jack and Sam nodding with wide smiles. "And don't pretend you didn't do it all to check how much I remember. I worked for you for three years if you remember…" Elizabeth smiled wickedly and turned to ask Chuck to activate the transporter mode instead of elevator capabilities only. Then she walked to the transporter and went to the other part of the City.

"She's back." Declared Chuck with a wide smile. "Faster than we thought, thankfully…"

He noticed every other technician lowered their heads with a smirk and just then Chuck noticed Sam standing over him with a daggers in her eyes.

"Ekhmmm…" he said and turned to the screen himself. Then he heard a soft laugh from above.

"I was serious to doctor Weir, Chuck" Sam said. "I'm really fine with your loyalty to her. It's good."

"We've been there, we've done that." Added Jack. He turned to Sam who stood there with a questioning look. "Bauer…"

"Ah, yeah." Sam grimaced. "Hard to forget. And for me there was also Landry and Mitchell… Anyway, I'm happy she's back."

"Daniel?" Asked Elizabeth entering the dark room with a solitary console and big display. "Are you there?"

"Elizabeth?" Asked Daniel emerging from a corner and disposing of a fat book he was apparently reading. "I wasn't expecting you here."

Elizabeth approached him and hugged him tightly.

"Okay, that's new." He managed to get out after a minute. "I don't remember you being so outgoing with me ever." He said with an honest smile.

"I'm just a little overwhelmed with all this knowledge…" Elizabeth said. "I apologize if it was uncomfortable, I just-" She didn't manage to finish her sentence because Daniel hugged her unexpectedly. "I guess you're not really mad at me."

"Not at all." Daniel said. "I'm glad you're back, I mean mentally."

"Did I manage to tell you…?"

"Jack warned me through the comm. just before you came." The man cleared. "It appears you had your memories restored in a much faster fashion than me at the time."

"Seems that way."

"So now what?" Daniel asked looking her in the eyes. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." She said truthfully. "First I must talk with John, there is a lot to discuss…"

"I bet. With your kid in the picture…" Daniel noticed the slight confusion on the woman's face and was afraid he said something wrong. "Please tell me I did not just dawned this on you."

"No, I know he's the father. I am just surprised you know it."

"Probably the whole base knows by now." Daniel clarified. "It's in the database and Beckett was not able to contain it as well as he would've liked to. Surprisingly I haven't heard anyone saying anything unpleasant about the thing."

"Oh, I've seen Cavanagh hiding from me…" She laughed. "He is probably spreading some slander right now."

"Even if he would like to he is probably hiding with his attitude. I think he would be ostracized immediately if he tried to sully your name, especially after what you just did. And everybody else is in seventh heaven that you're back, you can trust me."

"Been there, done that?" Elizabeth asked with a smirk.

"Yeah… twice. So, what else, after that talk with Sheppard?"

"I will leave with my crew in the Borealis, probably." Her face lost its happy gleam. "I'm no longer a part of this city."

"I… wouldn't be so eager to say that…"

"What do you mean?"

"San and Jack and, surprisingly, Woolsey have been making some great effort to present you as the leader of the Ancients who came to claim their city for good."

"But we haven't!" Elizabeth was animated. "We don't want to lay claim to this city and get rid of you! I want the expedition here!"

"Your man, Lutthan, is a tough negotiator and a good player, you would be proud of him."

"Daniel…?"

"He's been laying claim that it's their city and that you actually saved all our people and the crew of the Daedalus from certain death, that we wouldn't have been able to keep the city."

"And…?"

"He insists on full control over the city for the crew of Borealis with limited access from Earth."

"What?"

"From what I know he broke when the IOA demanded that we send you back to Earth for medical examination. Before he was just asking for living here." Daniel smiled merrily.

"They would have gladly cut me into little pieces for the scientists…" Elizabeth seethed. "Damned IOA."

"So… as you can see you're still here. Merely because most of the personell threatened with mutiny if you were moved anywhere."

"They shouldn't endanger their status."

"They have all they need here, Elizabeth." Daniel said with a warm smile. "Their work, their passions and, most importantly, their families."

"Families?"

"Your dream has come true. The City is wide awake with people again. Full of life."

"A lot of people made sure of that." Said another voice from the entrance.

"John?" Elizabeth asked unsurely. "Why are you here?"

"Chuck told me where you went." John said with an unsure smile. "So we both decided to find you."

Elizabeth recovered from the shock of seeing John and saw that he carried smiling Mercury in his arms. The child made some happy sounds seeing her and she made her way towards him immediately. Daniel stood near and observed the strangely domestic scene playing before his eyes. He knew all about the romantic problems in such situations – after all he was observing one of them for years and managed to see all of it from the very meeting to, hopefully soon to happen, wedding.

Jackson was happily observing when his radio crackled to life.

"_Daniel, are you there?"_ Sam's voice was asking.

"Yes, what's up?"

"_We have a problem and we may need Sheppard in the chair, he's closer."_

"Daniel?" Asked Elizabeth looking at him with worry. He always heard that she was able to sense when there was something wrong but thought it was just exasperation on the part of people who missed her. Now he knew there was something in it. "What is wrong?"

"Wraith over the city." Said Jackson conveying what Sam just said to him. "Sam wants Sheppard in the chair." Daniel said still listening to Sam in his earpiece. Then he turned to Elizabeth. "Do you have an earpiece?"

"No, I'm not really a member of the staff right now." Elizabeth explained.

"Sam, can you get it to the display? It should be connected to the mainframe."

First there was a blinking screen. Then there was a loud crash sound and John rushed back in the room covering Elizabeth and Mercury from the debris that followed him.

"Sam, what was that?" Asked Elizabeth after she stopped coughing and extracted the earpiece from Daniel. "The halls around us have collapsed."

"_We were hit before we could get the shield up." _Carter said calmly but there were sounds of panic in the control room. _"The main living areas are safe but some corridors on your pier and a lot of them in the base of the central tower seem inaccessible."_ Then there was a minutes silence. _"Are you all okay?"_

"Yes, we're all fine" Elizabeth looked over the two men and checked her son once more. "Is there a safe way for John to get to the chair?" She asked.

"_Doesn't seem like it. There is a flooding in the chair room."_ Sam informed her. _"We're having a problem with our shield generators, they must have taken one of them down with the first blast. Damn…!"_

"What is it? Sam, talk to me!" Elizabeth transferred to leader mode without thought. "What about the ships?"

"_Daedalus' crew is getting to it as we speak and I can't get any contact with the bridge of Borealis."_ Sam declared.

"_Maya, are you alright?"_ Asked another voice.

"Yes, Janus, I'm okay and so is Merc. What with Borealis?"

"_It was missed in the first wave, it's being crewed right now."_

"But you said the shields were not 100% and the beams are not operational yet!"

"_We're still going to 'give them hell' as you taught us."_ His smile was suddenly visible on the screen. _"We're not going to make it easy for anyone wanting to hurt Atlantis."_

"Idiots! Get them down to the City immediately. Get Lutthan an all the birds in the air now and get the shield up!" Elizabeth barked orders like she had no break since before her injury. "What do you mean you can't get the shield up, Chuck?"

"_We're out of most of the control up here, doctor Weir."_ The young technician answered running between all the stations.

"We need someone in the chair immediately!" Shouted Sam in the background.

"_Wouldn't work."_

"What?" Both women froze.

"The chair is out of the connection just like us." Chuck whitened. "We're sitting ducks."

"_Elizabeth, the wraith are preparing for another shot. They've got the central tower picked and all the shield generators."_ Janus said furiously tapping on the ancient keyboard.

"_You're too close to the generator, Elizabeth!"_ Shouted Sam. _"Get out of there now!"_

"You're in much more danger." Answered Elizabeth calmly.

Weir stepped to Sheppard and gave him their kid shoving them both and Daniel closer to the center of the room. She turned to John and kissed him deeply, just like he remembered from their 'incident' with Phoebus and Thalen.

"Just in case this doesn't work." She commented leaving them and closing on the console. "Janus, check if there is any structural pathway that could easily get from here to the chair and the shield generators!"

"_You can't be serious!"_ He seemed shocked. _"It can kill you!"_

"Do you know any other way?" she answered opening the front panel on the console and checking the insides. She winced. "Can't be so easy, I see…" She murmured.

"_Maya!"_

"Check it or I'll be doing it completely blind!" She barked. She wandered by the walls with closed eyes.

Daniel tried to get her to say what she was doing but she silenced him putting her hand on the wall. Suddenly she looked like she found what she was looking for. She looked back to see her child and his father once more and she just slammed her hand to the wall there.

Janus was saying something over the comm. but it was lost when a huge thunder sound was heard and the walls were glowing. Then a drone nearly missed Elizabeth coming up from under them.

"What the hell!" John whispered looking at Elizabeth slumped down on the floor with her hand still firmly pressed into the wall. He rearranged his own earpiece. "Sam, what the hell is going on?"

"_The shield is up and the drones were fired!"_ Sam exclaimed happily. _"Someone must have gotten it working!"_

"_It's Maya."_ Janus said stoically. _"She tapped into the system of conductive materials to connect with the City." _

"_How?"_ Sam asked first. _"Is that even possible?"_

"_She's done it with Borealis three times when the shots managed to cripple us. But it's highly dangerous for her health."_

"Chuck, find me the fastest way to Beckett, now!" Ordered John. "And tell me when-"

John didn't manage to finish his sentence because there was a loud sound far in the air and the city shook a lot.

"Sam?"

"_The Wraith hive just crashed into the shield."_ Sam informed. _"It's gone. We seem to be safe."_ Then she started to bark a lot of orders but John didn't need to hear them.

He handed Merc to Daniel and hurried to Elizabeth. She was pale but she was breathing and opening her eyes.

"A lot of damage…" she managed to say before she lost consciousness.

John went out of the room in time to hear Chuck leading him through the corridors to the only, as it seemed, working transporter, to get higher and into the infirmary. Elizabeth was in and out of consciousness several times now babbling incoherent things.

"I want to stay home…" was Weir's last statement John heard before Beckett's team wheeled her into the IC unit to take care of her.

"You will." Promised John aloud for everyone to hear.

In the evening, when there was quite an audience near her bed when she was waking up, she repeated her statement.

"I want to stay home." Elizabeth mumbled opening her eyes.

"You're going to." Jack stated firmly and surely. John's questioning gaze propped him to expand on his statement. "We talked to the SGC just after this attack and it seems that we made a pretty good case. Besides, apparently most of the city's inhabitants declared to mutiny if the IOA doesn't reinstate Elizabeth as a head of the expedition."

"They realized the only way for Earth to keep benefits from this outpost is to get Elizabeth not only to stay here but also for her to lead this City." Sam added. "So, this week I'll be stepping down and asking if I can stay."

"If _we_ can stay." Corrected Jack. "Let's say we like it here…"

"What is going on?" Asked Elizabeth groggily.

"You're home, Lis'beth, that's everything." John said taking her hand and smiling.

"The Avatar has returned…" mumbled Daniel from the back of the crowd smiling to Lutthan and Janus like he was sharing some secret with them. "It's bad news to the Wraith."


	18. Chapter 18 Epilogue

_**A/N:**_

_To this is the end of this journey with this particular story. I hope you liked it and that I didn't do a really bad job. I thank you all for being here along for the ride and I hope you'll like my next story._

_This short part is a little fluffy because I waited to do fluff for a long time and this was a perfect opportunity. Takes place some time after the main events of the story and basically it's just an addition.  
_

**Epilogue**

It was not so easy to chase after his son now that he was six and knew all the City like no one else. Except maybe his mother. John thought of Elizabeth as he stopped for a moment to gather some air into his lungs. His wife seemed to know exactly everything about the place. Maybe because she still insisted on reading all the reports from all the departments by herself. Maybe because she was what Daniel and the Lantians called "the Avatar of Atlantis" or "the true Steward" or any of their stupid names. She was still his wife and now a mother to be of their third child. That was why it was him chasing Mercury not her just connecting to the City and asking where the little brat had gone now.

Just before getting started again John looked through the large stain glass window to the pier. There, just like two smaller Atlantis' sat two huge warships which meant that Janus and O'Neills decided to be there for the birth of the first young Sheppard girl. Aurora Australis was almost a copy of the Borealis. Jack seemed to keep her in excellent condition. The ship, called affectionately "the Enterprise" was his puppet.

Thank god they brought Kenosos back with them – Beckett and Keller were too interested in the pregnancy of Chaya to spend all the time with Elizabeth and Kenosos knew his patient well enough. There were going to be more of those cross-pregnancies since part of the Lantians' group settled in Atlantis and started integrating with the human occupants. Many of them spend their days now on Borealis to remind themselves of the old times. Lutthan allowed that happily and retired himself to the mainland for a few days. His Lantian-human crew was perfectly capable to function very well for a few days without him on the helm.

"What are you thinking about?" Asked a voice from behind him. "The past?"

"Yeah." John answered looking Sam in the eyes. "It just seems so peaceful now. I's kinda strange. We're used to more turmoil."

"Jack has been through the same but he seems to accept that his fighting days are over." Sam said patting her belly affectionately. "You'll be fine."

"Anyway" John said with a smile nearing his friend and looking over her prominent stomach. "when are those two coming out?"

"According to the equipment it should be a while, but I feel they don't want to wait another two weeks." Sam smiled. "And how is Elizabeth? I didn't see her yet – Jack ushered me into the infirmary first thing after we arrived yesterday afternoon and you were sleeping already then."

"She's moody, means I will see my little one very soon." John rubbed his forhead. "I thought the third time would be easier…"

"General Sheppard to the infirmary ASAP." They heard Chuck's chuckling voice from the speakers.

"Damn," said John, "I forgot my earpiece…"

"General Sheppard to the infirmary ASAP." Chuck repeated. "And everyone with bets on this week for the birth of Kate Artemis Sheppard please collect your winnings in the control room." Added the technician with a laugh.

"Crap!" And John suddenly run in the direction of the nearest transporter.

He was followed by Sam's friendly laugh.

THE END


End file.
